2.

DIFFERENT SOURCES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

1.1.1 WIND POWER
Wind turbines can be used to harness the energy available in airflows. Current d
ay turbines range from around 600 kW to 5 MW of rated power. Since the power out
put is a function of the cube of the wind speed, it increases rapidly with an in
crease in available wind velocity. Recent advancements have led to aero foil win
d turbines, which are more efficient due to a better aerodynamic structure.
1.1.2 SOLAR POWER
The tapping of solar energy owes its origins to the British astronomer John Hers
chel who famously used a solar thermal collector box to cook food during an expe
dition to Africa. Solar energy can be utilized in two major ways. Firstly, the c
aptured heat can be used as solar thermal energy, with applications in space hea
ting. Another alternative is the conversion of incident solar radiation to elect
rical energy, which is the most usable form of energy. This can be achieved with
the help of solar photovoltaic cells or with concentrating solar power plants.
1.1.3 SMALL HYDROPOWER
Hydropower installations up to 10MW are considered as small hydropower and count
ed as renewable energy sources. These involve converting the potential energy of
water stored in dams into usable electrical energy through the use of water tur
bines. Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity aims to utilize the kinetic energy of w
ater without the need of building reservoirs or dams.
1.1.4 BIOMASS
Plants capture the energy of the sun through the process of photosynthesis. On c
ombustion, these plants release the trapped energy. This way, biomass works as a
natural battery to store the suns energy and yield it on requirement.
1.15GEOTHERMAL
Geothermal energy is the thermal energy which is generated and stored within the
layers of the Earth. The gradient thus developed gives rise to a continuous con
duction of heat from the core to the surface of the earth. This gradient can be
utilized to heat water to produce superheated steam and use it to run steam turb
ines to generate electricity. The main disadvantage of geothermal energy is that
it is usually limited to regions near tectonic plate boundaries, though recent
advancements have led to the propagation of this technology.
1.2 RENEWABLE ENERGY TRENDS ACROSS THE GLOBE
The current trend across developed economies tips the scale in favor of Renewabl
e Energy. For the last three years, the continents of North America and Europe h
ave embraced more renewable power capacity as compared to conventional power cap
acity. Renewable accounted for 60% of the newly installed power capacity in Euro
pe in 2009 and nearly 20% of the annual power production.
As can be seen from the statistics, wind and biomass occupy a major share of the
current renewable energy consumption. Recent advancements in solar photovoltaic
technology and constant incubation of projects in countries like Germany and Sp
ain have brought around tremendous growth in the solar PV market as well, which
is projected to surpass other renewable energy sources in the coming years.
By 2009, more than 85 countries had some policy target to achieve a predetermine
d share of their power capacity through renewable. This was an increase from aro
und 45 countries in 2005.
Most of the targets are also very ambitious, landing in the range of 30-90% shar
e of national production through renewable. Noteworthy policies are the European
Unions target of achieving 20% of total energy through renewable by 2020 and Ind
ias Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission, through which India plans to produce 20GW sol
ar energy by the year 2022,
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Studies show that a solar panel converts 30-40% of energy incident on it to elec
trical energy. A Maximum Power Point Tracking algorithm is necessary to increase
the efficiency of the solar panel. There are different techniques for MPPT such
as Perturb and Observe (hill climbing method), Incremental conductance, Fractio
nal Short Circuit Current, Fractional Open Circuit Voltage, Fuzzy Control, Neura
l Network Control etc. Among all the methods Perturb and observe (P&O) and Incre
mental conductance are most commonly used because of their simple implementation
, lesser time to track the MPP and several other economic reasons. Under abruptl
y changing weather conditions (irradiance level) as MPP changes continuously, P&
O takes it as a change in MPP due to perturbation rather than that of irradiance
and Sometimes ends up in calculating wrong MPP. However this problem gets avoid
ed in Incremental Conductance method as the algorithm takes two samples of volta
ge and current to calculate MPP. However, instead of higher efficiency the compl
exity of the algorithm is very high compared to the previous one and hence the c
ost of implementation increases. So we have to mitigate with a tradeoff between
complexity and efficiency. It is seen that the efficiency of the system also dep
ends upon the converter. Typically it is maximum for a buck topology, then for b
uck-boost topology and minimum for a boost topology. When multiple solar modules
are connected in parallel, another analog technique TEODI is also very effectiv
e which operates on the principle of equalization of output operating points in
correspondence to force displacement of input operating points of the identical
operating system. It is very simple to implement and has high efficiency both un
der stationary and time varying atmospheric conditions.
The development of new energy sources is continuously enhanced because of the cr
itical situation of the chemical industrial fuels such as oil, gas and others. T
hus, the renewable energy sources have become a more important contributor to th
e total energy consumed in the world. In fact, the demand for solar energy has i
ncreased by 20% to 25% over the past 20 years. The market for PV systems is grow
ing worldwide. In fact, nowadays, solar PV provides around 4800 GW. Between 2004
and 2009, grid connected PV capacity reached 21 GW and was increasing at an ann
ual average rate of 60%. In order to get benefit from the application of PV syst
ems, research activities are being conducted in an attempt to gain further impro
vement in their cost, efficiency and reliability.
CHAPTER -3
3. SOLAR CELL AND THEIR CHARACTERSTICS
Photovoltaic or solar cells, at the present time, furnish one of the most-import
ant long duration power supplies. This cell is considered a major candidate for
obtaining energy from the sun, since it can convert sunlight directly to electri
city with high conversion efficiency. It can provide nearly permanent power at l
ow operating cost, and is virtually free of pollution .Since a typical photovolt
aic cell produces less than 3 watts at approximately 0.5 volt dc, cells must be
connected in series-parallel configurations to produce enough power for high-pow
er applications. Cells are configured into module and modules are connected as a
rrays. Modules may have peak output powers ranging from a few watts, depending u
pon the intended application, to more than 300 watts. Typical array output power
is in the 100-watt-kilowattrange, although megawatt arrays do exist.
Photovoltaic cells, like batteries, generate direct current (DC), which is gener
ally used for small loads (electronic equipment). When DC from photovoltaic cell
s is used for commercial applications or sold to electric utilities using the el
ectric grid, it must be converted to alternating current (AC) using grid inverte
rs, solid-state devices that convert DC power toAC.
The uses of photovoltaic have been in space satellites, remote radio-commun
ication booster station and marine warning lights. These are also increasingly b
eing used for lighting, water pumping and medical refrigeration in remote areas
especially in developing countries. Solar-powered vehicle and battery charging a
re some of the recent interesting applications of solar PV power.
The major advantages of solar PV system over conventional power systems are
It converts solar energy directly into electrical energy without going through t
he thermal-mechanical link. it has no moving parts.
Solar PV system is reliable, modular, and durable and generally maintenance free
.
A solar PV system can be located at the place of use and hence no or minimum dis
tribution network is required, as it is universally available.