PROJECTS FOR 2011 Prof. Peter Wolfs Introduction In each year I attempt to manage a cohort of students to make progress in a few research themes. At any point in time up to 20 projects will be running covering students ranging from Bachelor Degrees to PhDs. The projects below vary enormously in scope and difficulty. Consider your capabilities and skills carefully. Not all projects will be avail...

Using Photovoltaic systems is gradually expanded by increasing energy demand. Abundance and availability of this energy, has turned to one of the most important sources of renewable energy. Unfortunately, photovoltaic systems have two big problems: first, those have very low energy conversion efficiency (in act between 12 and 42 percent under certain circumstances). Second, the power produced b...

---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract – This paper mainly focuses on differentiating the implementation of Maximum Power Point Tracking techniques in both analog and digital modes. Digitally tracking the optimum point is the most widely used technique for achieving the better accurate ...

The interest in distributed maximum power point tracking increases along with increasing deployment of photovoltaic generators and the constant pressure to reduce the cost of photovoltaic generated energy. Distributed maximum point tracking facilitates a significant boost of captured photovoltaic power. In this paper we compare different distributed maximum power point architectures, and catego...

In this paper, ANN controller for maximum power point tracking of photovoltaic (PV) systems is proposed and PV modeling is discussed. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods are used to maximize the PV array output power by tracking continuously the maximum power point. ANN controller with hillclimbing algorithm offers fast and accurate converging to the maximum operating point during stead...

In this paper, a robust Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) for PV array has been proposed using sliding mode control by defining a new formulation for sliding surface which is based on increment conductance (INC) method. The stability and robustness of the proposed controller are investigated to load variations and environment changes. Three different types of DC-DC converter are used in Maxim...

Seas and oceans are the most important sources of renewable energy in the world. The main purpose of this paper is to use an appropriate control strategy to improve the performance of point absorbers. In this scheme, considering the high uncertainty in the parameters of the power take-off system in different atmospheric conditions, a new improved black hole algorithm is introduced to tune fuzzy...

A low-power low-cost highly efficient maximum power point tracker (MPPT) to be integrated into a photovoltaic (PV) panel is proposed. This can result in a 25% energy enhancement compared to a standard photovoltaic panel, while performing functions like battery voltage regulation and matching of the PV array with the load. Instead of using an externally connected MPPT, it is proposed to use an i...