Matching Items (28)
Description
To increase the deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems, a higher level of performance for PV modules should be sought. Soiling, or dust accumulation on the PV modules, is one of the conditions that negatively affect the performance of the PV modules by reducing the light incident onto the surface of the PV module. This thesis presents two studies that focus on investigating the soiling effect on the performance of the PV modules installed in Metro Phoenix area.
The first study was conducted to investigate the optimum cleaning frequency for cleaning PV modules installed in Mesa, AZ. By monitoring the soiling loss of PV modules mounted on a mock rooftop at ASU-PRL, a detailed soiling modeling was obtained. Same setup was also used for other soiling-related investigations like studying the effect of soiling density on angle of incidence (AOI) dependence, the climatological relevance (CR) to soiling, and spatial variation of the soiling loss. During the first dry season (May to June), the daily soiling rate was found as -0.061% for 20o tilted modules. Based on the obtained soiling rate, cleaning PV modules, when the soiling is just due to dust on 20o tilted residential arrays, was found economically not justifiable.
The second study focuses on evaluating the soiling loss in different locations of Metro Phoenix area of Arizona. The main goal behind the second study was to validate the daily soiling rate obtained from the mock rooftop setup in the first part of this thesis. By collaborating with local solar panel cleaning companies, soiling data for six residential systems in 5 different cities in and around Phoenix was collected, processed, and analyzed. The range of daily soiling rate in the Phoenix area was found as -0.057% to -0.085% for 13-28o tilted arrays. The soiling rate found in the first part of the thesis (-0.061%) for 20o tilted array, was validated since it falls within the range obtained from the second part of the thesis.
The first study was conducted to investigate the optimum cleaning frequency for cleaning PV modules installed in Mesa, AZ. By monitoring the soiling loss of PV modules mounted on a mock rooftop at ASU-PRL, a detailed soiling modeling was obtained. Same setup was also used for other soiling-related investigations like studying the effect of soiling density on angle of incidence (AOI) dependence, the climatological relevance (CR) to soiling, and spatial variation of the soiling loss. During the first dry season (May to June), the daily soiling rate was found as -0.061% for 20o tilted modules. Based on the obtained soiling rate, cleaning PV modules, when the soiling is just due to dust on 20o tilted residential arrays, was found economically not justifiable.
The second study focuses on evaluating the soiling loss in different locations of Metro Phoenix area of Arizona. The main goal behind the second study was to validate the daily soiling rate obtained from the mock rooftop setup in the first part of this thesis. By collaborating with local solar panel cleaning companies, soiling data for six residential systems in 5 different cities in and around Phoenix was collected, processed, and analyzed. The range of daily soiling rate in the Phoenix area was found as -0.057% to -0.085% for 13-28o tilted arrays. The soiling rate found in the first part of the thesis (-0.061%) for 20o tilted array, was validated since it falls within the range obtained from the second part of the thesis.
ContributorsNaeem, Mohammad Hussain (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
There has been a considerable growth in distributed photovoltaic (PV) genera-tion and its integration in electric power distribution systems. This has led to a change in the distribution system infrastructure. Properly planned distributed gen-eration can offer a variety of benefits for system operations and enhance opera-tional performance of the distribution system. However, high penetration of PV resources can give rise to operating conditions which do not arise in traditional systems and one of the potential issues that needs to be addressed involves impact on power quality of the system with respect to the spectral distortion in voltages and currents.
The test bed feeder model representing a real operational distribution feeder is developed in OpenDSS and the feeder modeling takes into consideration the ob-jective of analysis and frequency of interest. Extensive metering infrastructure and measurements are utilized for validation of the model at harmonic frequencies. The harmonic study performed is divided into two sections: study of impact of non-linear loads on total harmonic voltage and current distortions and study of impact of PV resources on high frequency spectral distortion in voltages and cur-rents. The research work incorporates different harmonic study methodologies such as harmonic and high frequency power flow, and frequency scan study. The general conclusions are presented based on the simulation results and in addition, scope for future work is discussed.
The test bed feeder model representing a real operational distribution feeder is developed in OpenDSS and the feeder modeling takes into consideration the ob-jective of analysis and frequency of interest. Extensive metering infrastructure and measurements are utilized for validation of the model at harmonic frequencies. The harmonic study performed is divided into two sections: study of impact of non-linear loads on total harmonic voltage and current distortions and study of impact of PV resources on high frequency spectral distortion in voltages and cur-rents. The research work incorporates different harmonic study methodologies such as harmonic and high frequency power flow, and frequency scan study. The general conclusions are presented based on the simulation results and in addition, scope for future work is discussed.
ContributorsJoshi, Titiksha Vjay (Author) / Heydt, Gerald T (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
In this thesis the performance of a Hybrid AC System (HACS) is modeled and optimized. The HACS utilizes solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to help reduce the demand from the utility during peak hours. The system also includes an ice Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank to accumulate cooling energy during off-peak hours. The AC runs continuously on grid power during off-peak hours to generate cooling for the house and to store thermal energy in the TES. During peak hours, the AC runs on the power supplied from the PV, and cools the house along with the energy stored in the TES. A higher initial cost is expected due to the additional components of the HACS (PV and TES), but a lower operational cost due to higher energy efficiency, energy storage and renewable energy utilization. A house cooled by the HACS will require a smaller size AC unit (about 48% less in the rated capacity), compared to a conventional AC system. To compare the cost effectiveness of the HACS with a regular AC system, time-of-use (TOU) utility rates are considered, as well as the cost of the system components and the annual maintenance. The model shows that the HACS pays back its initial cost of $28k in about 6 years with an 8% APR, and saves about $45k in total cost when compared to a regular AC system that cools the same house for the same period of 6 years.
ContributorsJubran, Sadiq (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis advisor) / Calhoun, Ronald (Committee member) / Trimble, Steve (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The high penetration of photovoltaic (PV) both at the utility and at the distribu-tion levels, has raised concerns about the reliability of grid-tied inverters of PV power systems. Inverters are generally considered as the weak link in PV power systems. The lack of a dedicated qualification/reliability standard for PV inverters is a main barrier in realizing higher level of confidence in reliability. Development of a well-accepted design qualification standard specifically for PV inverters will help pave the way for significant improvement in reliability and performance of inverters across the entire industry. The existing standards for PV inverters such as UL 1741 and IEC 62109-1 primarily focus on safety. IEC 62093 discusses inverter qualification but it includes all the balance of sys-tem components and therefore not specific to PV inverters. There are other general stan-dards for distributed generators including the IEEE1547 series of standards which cover major concerns like utility integration but they are not dedicated to PV inverters and are not written from a design qualification point of view. In this thesis, some of the potential requirements for a design qualification standard for PV inverters are addressed. The IEC 62093 is considered as a guideline and the possible inclusions in the framework for a dedicated design qualification standard of PV inverter are discussed. The missing links in existing PV inverter related standards are identified by performing gap analysis. Dif-ferent requirements of small residential inverters compared to large utility-scale systems, and the emerging requirements on grid support features are also considered. Electric stress test is found to be the key missing link and one of the electric stress tests, the surge withstand test is studied in detail. The use of the existing standards for surge withstand test of residential scale PV inverters is investigated and a method to suitably adopt these standards is proposed. The proposed method is studied analytically and verified using simulation. A design criterion for choosing the switch ratings of the inverter that can per-form reliably under the surge environment is derived.
ContributorsAlampoondi Venkataramanan, Sai Balasubramanian (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
With increased usage of green energy, the number of photovoltaic arrays used in power generation is increasing rapidly. Many of the arrays are located at remote locations where faults that occur within the array often go unnoticed and unattended for large periods of time. Technicians sent to rectify the faults have to spend a large amount of time determining the location of the fault manually. Automated monitoring systems are needed to obtain the information about the performance of the array and detect faults. Such systems must monitor the DC side of the array in addition to the AC side to identify non catastrophic faults. This thesis focuses on two of the requirements for DC side monitoring of an automated PV array monitoring system. The first part of the thesis quantifies the advantages of obtaining higher resolution data from a PV array on detection of faults. Data for the monitoring system can be gathered for the array as a whole or from additional places within the array such as individual modules and end of strings. The fault detection rate and the false positive rates are compared for array level, string level and module level PV data. Monte Carlo simulations are performed using PV array models developed in Simulink and MATLAB for fault and no fault cases. The second part describes a graphical user interface (GUI) that can be used to visualize the PV array for module level monitoring system information. A demonstration GUI is built in MATLAB using data obtained from a PV array test facility in Tempe, AZ. Visualizations are implemented to display information about the array as a whole or individual modules and locate faults in the array.
ContributorsKrishnan, Venkatachalam (Author) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Thesis advisor) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Photovoltaic (PV) modules undergo performance degradation depending on climatic conditions, applications, and system configurations. The performance degradation prediction of PV modules is primarily based on Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) procedures. In order to further strengthen the ALT process, additional investigation of the power degradation of field aged PV modules in various configurations is required. A detailed investigation of 1,900 field aged (12-18 years) PV modules deployed in a power plant application was conducted for this study. Analysis was based on the current-voltage (I-V) measurement of all the 1,900 modules individually. I-V curve data of individual modules formed the basis for calculating the performance degradation of the modules. The percentage performance degradation and rates of degradation were compared to an earlier study done at the same plant. The current research was primarily focused on identifying the extent of potential induced degradation (PID) of individual modules with reference to the negative ground potential. To investigate this, the arrangement and connection of the individual modules/strings was examined in detail. The study also examined the extent of underperformance of every series string due to performance mismatch of individual modules in that string. The power loss due to individual module degradation and module mismatch at string level was then compared to the rated value.
ContributorsJaspreet Singh (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Photovoltaic (PV) modules are typically rated at three test conditions: STC (standard test conditions), NOCT (nominal operating cell temperature) and Low E (low irradiance). The current thesis deals with the power rating of PV modules at twenty-three test conditions as per the recent International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard of IEC 61853 – 1. In the current research, an automation software tool developed by a previous researcher of ASU – PRL (ASU Photovoltaic Reliability Laboratory) is validated at various stages. Also in the current research, the power rating of PV modules for four different manufacturers is carried out according to IEC 61853 – 1 standard using a new outdoor test method. The new outdoor method described in this thesis is very different from the one reported by a previous researcher of ASU – PRL. The new method was designed to reduce the labor hours in collecting the current-voltage ( I – V) curves at various temperatures and irradiance levels. The power matrices for all the four manufacturers were generated using the I – V data generated at different temperatures and irradiance levels and the translation procedures described in IEC 60891 standard. All the measurements were carried out on both clear and cloudy days using an automated 2 – axis tracker located at ASU – PRL, Mesa, Arizona. The modules were left on the 2 – axis tracker for 12 continuous days and the data was continuously and automatically collected for every two minutes from 6 am to 6 pm. In order to obtain the I – V data at wide range of temperatures and irradiance levels, four identical (or nearly identical) modules were simultaneously installed on the 2 – axis tracker with and without thermal insulators on the back of the modules and with and without mesh screens on the front of the modules. Several issues related to the automation software were uncovered and the required improvement in the software has been suggested. The power matrices for four manufacturers have been successfully generated using the new outdoor test method developed in this work. The data generated in this work has been extensively analyzed for accuracy and for performance efficiency comparison at various temperatures and irradiance levels.
ContributorsVemula, Meena Gupta (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Macia, Narcio F. (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Renewable energy has been a very hot topic in recent years due to the traditional energy crisis. Incentives that encourage the renewables have been established all over the world. Ordinary homeowners are also seeking ways to exploit renewable energy. In this thesis, residential PV system, wind turbine system and a hybrid wind/solar system are all investigated. The solar energy received by the PV panels varies with many factors. The most essential one is the irradiance. As the PV panel been installed towards different orientations, the incident insolation received by the panel also will be different. The differing insolation corresponds to the different angles between the irradiance and the panel throughout the day. The result shows that for PV panels in the northern hemisphere, the ones facing south obtain the highest level insolation and thus generate the most electricity. However, with the two different electricity rate plans, flat rate plan and TOU (time of use) plan, the value of electricity that PV generates is different. For wind energy, the wind speed is the most significant variable to determine the generation of a wind turbine. Unlike solar energy, wind energy is much more regionally dependent. Wind resources vary between very close locations. As expected, the result shows that, larger wind speed leads to more electricity generation and thus shorter payback period. For the PV/wind hybrid system, two real cases are analyzed for Altamont and Midhill, CA. In this part, the impact of incentives, system cost and system size are considered. With a hybrid system, homeowners may choose different size combinations between PV and wind turbines. It turns out that for these two locations, the system with larger PV output always achieve a shorter payback period due to the lower cost. Even though, for a longer term, the system with a larger wind turbine in locations with excellent wind resources may lead to higher return on investment. Meanwhile, impacts of both wind and solar incentives (mainly utility rebates) are analyzed. At last, effects of the cost of both renewables are performed.
ContributorsAn, Wen (Author) / Holbert, Keith E. (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Tylavsky, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This is a two part thesis:
Part – I
This part of the thesis involves automation of statistical risk analysis of photovoltaic (PV) power plants. Statistical risk analysis on the field observed defects/failures in the PV power plants is usually carried out using a combination of several manual methods which are often laborious, time consuming and prone to human errors. In order to mitigate these issues, an automated statistical risk analysis (FMECA) is necessary. The automation developed and presented in this project generates about 20 different reliability risk plots in about 3-4 minutes without the need of several manual labor hours traditionally spent for these analyses. The primary focus of this project is to automatically generate Risk Priority Number (RPN) for each defect/failure based on two Excel spreadsheets: Defect spreadsheet; Degradation rate spreadsheet. Automation involves two major programs – one to calculate Global RPN (Sum of Performance RPN and Safety RPN) and the other to find the correlation of defects with I-V parameters’ degradations. Based on the generated RPN and other reliability plots, warranty claims for material defect and degradation rate may be made by the system owners.
Part – II
This part of the thesis involves the evaluation of Module Level Power Electronics (MLPE) which are commercially available and used by the industry. Reliability evaluations of any product typically involve pre-characterizations, many different accelerated stress tests and post-characterizations. Due to time constraints, this part of the project was limited to only pre-characterizations of about 100 MLPE units commercially available from 5 different manufacturers. Pre-characterizations involve testing MLPE units for rated efficiency, CEC efficiency, power factor and Harmonics (Vthd (%) and Ithd (%)). The pre-characterization test results can be used to validate manufacturer claims and to evaluate the product for compliance certification test standards. Pre-characterization results were compared for all MLPE units individually for all tested parameters listed above. The accelerated stress tests are ongoing and are not presented in this thesis. Based on the pre-characterizations presented in this report and post-characterizations performed after the stress tests, the pass/fail and time-to-failure analyses can be carried out by future researchers.
Part – I
This part of the thesis involves automation of statistical risk analysis of photovoltaic (PV) power plants. Statistical risk analysis on the field observed defects/failures in the PV power plants is usually carried out using a combination of several manual methods which are often laborious, time consuming and prone to human errors. In order to mitigate these issues, an automated statistical risk analysis (FMECA) is necessary. The automation developed and presented in this project generates about 20 different reliability risk plots in about 3-4 minutes without the need of several manual labor hours traditionally spent for these analyses. The primary focus of this project is to automatically generate Risk Priority Number (RPN) for each defect/failure based on two Excel spreadsheets: Defect spreadsheet; Degradation rate spreadsheet. Automation involves two major programs – one to calculate Global RPN (Sum of Performance RPN and Safety RPN) and the other to find the correlation of defects with I-V parameters’ degradations. Based on the generated RPN and other reliability plots, warranty claims for material defect and degradation rate may be made by the system owners.
Part – II
This part of the thesis involves the evaluation of Module Level Power Electronics (MLPE) which are commercially available and used by the industry. Reliability evaluations of any product typically involve pre-characterizations, many different accelerated stress tests and post-characterizations. Due to time constraints, this part of the project was limited to only pre-characterizations of about 100 MLPE units commercially available from 5 different manufacturers. Pre-characterizations involve testing MLPE units for rated efficiency, CEC efficiency, power factor and Harmonics (Vthd (%) and Ithd (%)). The pre-characterization test results can be used to validate manufacturer claims and to evaluate the product for compliance certification test standards. Pre-characterization results were compared for all MLPE units individually for all tested parameters listed above. The accelerated stress tests are ongoing and are not presented in this thesis. Based on the pre-characterizations presented in this report and post-characterizations performed after the stress tests, the pass/fail and time-to-failure analyses can be carried out by future researchers.
ContributorsMoorthy, Mathan Kumar (Author) / Govindasamy, Tamizhmani (Thesis advisor) / Devarajan, Srinivasan (Committee member) / Bradley, Rogers (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This is a two-part thesis.
Part 1 presents an approach for working towards the development of a standardized artificial soiling method for laminated photovoltaic (PV) cells or mini-modules. Construction of an artificial chamber to maintain controlled environmental conditions and components/chemicals used in artificial soil formulation is briefly explained. Both poly-Si mini-modules and a single cell mono-Si coupons were soiled and characterization tests such as I-V, reflectance and quantum efficiency (QE) were carried out on both soiled, and cleaned coupons. From the results obtained, poly-Si mini-modules proved to be a good measure of soil uniformity, as any non-uniformity present would not result in a smooth curve during I-V measurements. The challenges faced while executing reflectance and QE characterization tests on poly-Si due to smaller size cells was eliminated on the mono-Si coupons with large cells to obtain highly repeatable measurements. This study indicates that the reflectance measurements between 600-700 nm wavelengths can be used as a direct measure of soil density on the modules.
Part 2 determines the most dominant failure modes of field aged PV modules using experimental data obtained in the field and statistical analysis, FMECA (Failure Mode, Effect, and Criticality Analysis). The failure and degradation modes of about 744 poly-Si glass/polymer frameless modules fielded for 18 years under the cold-dry climate of New York was evaluated. Defect chart, degradation rates (both string and module levels) and safety map were generated using the field measured data. A statistical reliability tool, FMECA that uses Risk Priority Number (RPN) is used to determine the dominant failure or degradation modes in the strings and modules by means of ranking and prioritizing the modes. This study on PV power plants considers all the failure and degradation modes from both safety and performance perspectives.
The indoor and outdoor soiling studies were jointly performed by two Masters Students, Sravanthi Boppana and Vidyashree Rajasekar. This thesis presents the indoor soiling study, whereas the other thesis presents the outdoor soiling study. Similarly, the statistical risk analyses of two power plants (model J and model JVA) were jointly performed by these two Masters students. Both power plants are located at the same cold-dry climate, but one power plant carries framed modules and the other carries frameless modules. This thesis presents the results obtained on the frameless modules.
Part 1 presents an approach for working towards the development of a standardized artificial soiling method for laminated photovoltaic (PV) cells or mini-modules. Construction of an artificial chamber to maintain controlled environmental conditions and components/chemicals used in artificial soil formulation is briefly explained. Both poly-Si mini-modules and a single cell mono-Si coupons were soiled and characterization tests such as I-V, reflectance and quantum efficiency (QE) were carried out on both soiled, and cleaned coupons. From the results obtained, poly-Si mini-modules proved to be a good measure of soil uniformity, as any non-uniformity present would not result in a smooth curve during I-V measurements. The challenges faced while executing reflectance and QE characterization tests on poly-Si due to smaller size cells was eliminated on the mono-Si coupons with large cells to obtain highly repeatable measurements. This study indicates that the reflectance measurements between 600-700 nm wavelengths can be used as a direct measure of soil density on the modules.
Part 2 determines the most dominant failure modes of field aged PV modules using experimental data obtained in the field and statistical analysis, FMECA (Failure Mode, Effect, and Criticality Analysis). The failure and degradation modes of about 744 poly-Si glass/polymer frameless modules fielded for 18 years under the cold-dry climate of New York was evaluated. Defect chart, degradation rates (both string and module levels) and safety map were generated using the field measured data. A statistical reliability tool, FMECA that uses Risk Priority Number (RPN) is used to determine the dominant failure or degradation modes in the strings and modules by means of ranking and prioritizing the modes. This study on PV power plants considers all the failure and degradation modes from both safety and performance perspectives.
The indoor and outdoor soiling studies were jointly performed by two Masters Students, Sravanthi Boppana and Vidyashree Rajasekar. This thesis presents the indoor soiling study, whereas the other thesis presents the outdoor soiling study. Similarly, the statistical risk analyses of two power plants (model J and model JVA) were jointly performed by these two Masters students. Both power plants are located at the same cold-dry climate, but one power plant carries framed modules and the other carries frameless modules. This thesis presents the results obtained on the frameless modules.
ContributorsRajasekar, Vidyashree (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015