72651 - Power Converters for Renewable Energy Systems (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

The student will receive operating principles and design cues for power converters, aimed at optimal efficiency. This knowledge can be used for analysis, design and control of power stage in wind farms and photovoltaics.

Course contents

Power Electronics

• Review of most common power electronic devices for static energy conversion: Diodes, MOSFET, IGBT.
• Basic Configurations of AC/DC, DC/DC, DC/AC converters
• Grid connection

AC/DC converters

• Non controlled diode rectifiers
• Controlled rectifiers

DC/DC converters

• Buck
• Boost
• Buck-boost
• Cük

Inverter

• Modulation techniques
• Single-phase architectures
• Three-phase architectures

Photovoltaics power generation

• Overview of photovoltaic energy conversion systems. Structure of a photovoltaic system. Power converters for grid connection. Maximum Power Point Technologies. Advanced photovoltaic technologies.

Wind power generation

• Overview of wind energy conversion systems. Conventional wind energy conversion systems. Power grid connection.

Tidal power generation

• Overview of tidal energy conversion systems. Structure of a photovoltaic system. Power converters for grid connection. Maximum Power Point Technologies. Advanced photovoltaic technologies.

Readings/Bibliography

Mohan Ned, Undeland Tore, Robbins William, "Power Electronics: Converters, Applications and Design", John Wiley & Sons Inc; 4 edizione

Robert W. Erickson, Dragan Maksimovic, "Fundamentals of Power Electronics", Kluwer Academic Pub

Muhammad Rashid, "Power Electronics Handbook", Butterworth-Heinemann; 4 edizione, 2017.

Remus Teodorescu, Marco Liserre, Pedro Rodríguez, "Grid Converters for Photovoltaic and Wind Power Systems", John Wiley & Sons Inc Print on

S. Chkraborty, M.G. Simoes, W.E. Kramer, "Power Electronics for Renewable and Distributed Energy Systems. A sourcebook of topologies, control and integration", Springer, 2013

Teaching methods

Lectures with Power Point slides.

Numerical simulation with MATLAB

Assessment methods

Locally developed pre- and post- tests will be used to assess skills in power converters analysis and design.

Teamwork projects will be used to assess the capability of solving real problems, e.g. basic power stages for wind and photovoltaic converters.

All students will show substantial improvement in stated learning outcomes, as indicated by pre- and post- evaluation of real problems.

Teaching tools

Lectures with Power Point.

Teamwork and numerical simulation of basic power converter topologies.

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Bellini