Project Overview

Our senior design team has the task of studying and improving a stand-alone solar PV generation system. Recent technological advances have made solar and wind generation more economical and thus more common throughout the world. This increased demand of renewable energy produces a great demand for educated Electrical Engineers. This project is focused on developing and expanding the current solar station to be more user friendly and educational for future lab students.

Goals

  • Create a more compact, updated, and user friendly workstation for students to conduct labs
  • Generate ways to optimize small stand-alone systems to benefit those in remote areas
  • Create effective lab material for future EE 452 labs
  • Study and model theoretical daily power use and generation of a solar system

To accomplish our goals, we have met extensively with our advisor and researched the principles of solar power. We have had several tasks that include modeling a complete solar PV system in Matlab, researching the inner workings of maximum power point tracking, and calculating proper L and C values for an effective boost converter. One very helpful aspect of learning involved simulating a working model of a solar PV system in Matlab. This has allowed us to recreate our own conversions and power tracking techniques to deeply understand how the existing system functions.

Simulink Model:

PV System Overview

Sample Daily Profile

Modified Series Charge Controller

Modified Series Charge Controller Batteries in PV Systems by James P. Dunlop, University of Central Florida