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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Looking for technical publications about solar power inverters (wechselrichtern): design (MPPT), regulatory issues, and testing?

I started to research inverter technology for Grid connected PV systems earlier this year. The publications I found at US Department of Energy websites like The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia Labs were short on length and technical details (because of public – private partnerships?).

pvresources has background information on inverters and highlights publications from industry and universities, many in association with the IEA Photovoltaics Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS), regarding the history, regulatory evolution, and testing of inverters. Publications by Dr. Heinrich Häberlin and his associates at the Berne University of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering and Information Technology, are informative and worth reading. Most of Dr. Häberlin’s publications offer an English version, but there are German and French versions as well.

The best publication I have seen describing a MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracking approach is: http://www.elci.tuc.gr/downloads/Kalaitzakis/J.17.pdf

Development of a Microcontroller-Based, Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Tracking Control System
Eftichios Koutroulis, Kostas Kalaitzakis, Member, IEEE, and Nicholas C. Voulgaris
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO. 1, JANUARY 2001

provided courtesy of:

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CRETE

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

DIVISION OF ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

ELECTRIC CIRCUITS
AND
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
LABORATORY

Texas Instruments (TI) has a webpage regarding Solar Power Inverters but the Application Report:

TMS320C2000™ DSP Controllers: A Perfect Fit for Solar Power Inverters (spraae3.htm, 10 KB) 05 May 2006 Abstract

is just an introduction without a companion reference design. Perhaps TI offers a reference design to their TMS320C2000 DSP customers?

1 Comments:

Blogger Edgar A. Gunther said...

Apparently, TI has no specific plans for new collateral on solar power inverters based on the C2000 devices. TI suggests periodically checking the Digital Power System Solutions web page at www.ti.com/c2000appsw

9:47 AM  

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