Evaluation of Hybrid Solar Inverters †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Evaluation of Hybrid Solar Inverters. Answer: Introduction: Energy has become a most important element of life. Energy serves many purposes such as lighting, refrigeration and charging electronic appliances. Similarly, automobiles require power although there has been a great bottleneck due to the price rise of the energy sources. According to Dali and Roboam (2010), particular nations have been faced with the challenge of power supply due to the increased number of industries. According to Zhou, Wang, Lukic, Bhattacharya and Huang (2009), the population is rising, adding more pressure to the government to come up with strategies necessary for distributing the energy. The implication of such a scenario is that demand for power is more than the supply which renders the country weak to source energy from outside. This step leads to the increase in the prices of the energy resources thus threatening the national and economic security. Of late the demand for electrical power has been on the rise not forgetting the transportation sector both of wh ich depend on the fossil fuels (Yang Zhou, 2007). Past research reveals that up to date almost ninety percent of the oil reserves have already been discovered. This implies that continued use of the fuel may deplete these reserves and the world will be in a mess. Also, there are other reported cases where fuel reserves are bombed as a result of civil war. This clearly indicates that some years to come the world might be running low of fuels. To curb that problem, people need to invest their ideas in sourcing other power supplies that would conveniently serve them in case fuels become deficient. In that connection, solar energy is the proven remedy. The solar energy is enhanced by the solar panel which harnesses the energy directly from the sun (Ashari Nayar, 1999). This solar energy requires the presence of the solar battery to act as a reserve in cases of weak sunlight. Making the whole system work; several requirements have to be availed. The presence of a solar charger is very crucial to for the system to be declared complete. It is a device that utilizes the radiations from the panel and converts it into energy then transfers it to the solar battery. The solar cells are properly fixed in the charger to ensure more power storage in the battery to take care of the off-peak season. Additionally, the solar charger stores power from the solar panel to act as a reserve during the daytime. Because the solar charger might experience high voltages during endless day sunshine, the solar charger might be affected therefore opting to have the voltage regulator to be used alongside the charger (Yang, Zhou, Lu Fang, 2008). When the sunlight falls on the solar plate, the plate absorbs these rays which are now in the form of electricity. The light energy, also known as photons hits the IN4001 circuit diode that provides a unidirectional flow to the circuit. The law of this flow obeys the fact that the current only flows from the solar panel to the battery, but the reverse is not true. The latter follows that IC series LM317T is installed to act as the voltage controller. If the voltage exceeds 18volts, a resistor of 0.5 ohms is tripped to rende r the circuit incomplete therefore restricting the circuit current from flowing (Hirose Matsuo, 2012). The solar watts become the principal determiner of the current flowing alongside the circuit. The resistor acquires power from the battery and the AC mains. The good thing about the inverter is that it converts the direct current (DC) from the battery using control circuits, switching circuits, and the transformers and switches it to a load that is used at home. The grid connected with the solar inverter charges the battery, and this keeps the inverter functioning. In the case of a fall in the current flow from the solar grid, the inverter depends on the cells DC and converts it into AC to keep the appliances used at home working. The hybrid inverters are very crucial in generating the amount of power transferred to the heavy load devices from the battery (Kim, Jeon, Cho, Ahn Kwon, 2008). The use of the inverters is mostly applicable to the developing nations. This is because the system is cheap and many people can afford to buy all the required devices to have power generated. The inverter is enabled by the use of solar energy that solves the limitation of the full appliances. The solar energy has become popular because it is a renewable source of energy. It cannot be compared to the other nonrenewable sources of energy because it does not pollute the environment. The bottleneck for solar power is that it only produces power when the sun is shining (Nayar, Phillips, James, Pryor Remmer, 1993). To curbing this problem, it is connected to the rechargeable battery to ensure power supply even in the absence of sunlight. The conversion of DC to AC is needed. This is because the production of power by the solar system is always in DC and it has to be converted into an efficient energy that will be used at home for several purposes. The solar panels are controlled by DC-DC converts mostly applicable for commercial use where the load has several specified functions such as phone charging and lighting (Daniel Ammasai, 2004). It is worth noting that solar panels are necessary and recently their prices have increased due to the limited availability of the silicon. The portable solar panels are efficient for the travelers and small-scale users who do not have many load appliances. On the other hand, large solar panels cannot be utilized without incorporating batteries. The power supply from the solar panel is immense therefore integration of a charger is necessary. This serves a great purpose in that the battery cells are not destroyed by the pressure of the power that might have been coming directly from the solar panel. AS the power from the solar panel reduces, the effectiveness of the inverter is reduced as well, and this might contribute to the collapsing of the whole system. Relevance of the study There is no doubt that solar power is the leading efficient energy source in the world. The engineers and other experts have invested their skills to develop strategies in which electricity can be produced. One of the primary sector under which such investment has been undertaken is the utilization of dams to fix them with turbines to yield power. Because the population is increasing, there have been propositions to enhance energy rationing (Xu, Ruan, Mao, Zhang Luo, 2013). Additionally, many nations have taxed the residents heavily to cater for electrification program, a move that has led to political and economic instability. Moreover, research indicates that dry spells dominate the last two decades we have recently experienced implying that the productivity of dams regarding electricity has reduced significantly. Therefore, the solar power becomes a major point of discussion because, with inverters in place, the system can prove to be better than hydropower. In connection to that , if much of the attention can be put on the efficiency of the inverter to utilize the solar energy for higher voltage the interested people can have something to smile. To assess the relationship between inverters and the solar power. To determine the potential of the inverters in regards to power generation To establish the gap for system improvement Benefits of the study The benefits emanating from this research are endless. Firstly the study will give room for the inverters producing industries to evaluate and incorporate the suggested steps to improve the potential of the inverters. The research department will also benefit in that the future trend concerning solar power and harnessing of energy using inverters will be enhanced(Zhou, Yang Fang, 2008). Also, the business people will greatly benefit from the research because their enterprises will expand as a result of improved inverters that are capable of generating high-level AC voltage. Solar power is very useful in our lives today. Long ago people used to complain that the solar panels would not be accessible to their high market prices. Currently, almost everyone can have easy access to a solar panel simply because they have been cheaply produced and supplied all over the world to meet the ever rising demand (Liu, Wang Loh, 2011). However, the due to the increased demand for solar power in our homes and businesses, inverters have been installed to ensure power from solar batteries is harnessed to yield more power for the ongoing activities. The inverters are also believed to sustain the power supply even after solar energy is reduced (Gurkaynak Khaligh, 2009). Despite the fact that inverters are bound to solve the cases of low voltage as a result of inefficient solar power from the sun plate, the problem of low power supply remains to be real. Ideally, the results obtained in the end will be critical to dictate the soundness of the system to ensure maximum utili zation of solar energy. The literature review focuses on the level of technology regarding the solar energy production units utilized in the residential areas as well as evaluation of the available inverter designs in the market. Similarly, the power quality will be evaluated to provide a print to the subject. According to Borowy and Salameh (1996), the potential to make use of the environmentally friendly sources of energy is the primary concern to the engineers who are willingly doing research for the well-being of the current and future generation. Solar energy has gained much attention from the researchers as well as the engineers to curb the rising demand for power and provide green energy. To critically understand the benefits behind improvisation of solar energy system, Nema and Rangnekar (2009) saw the need to appreciate the Dutch government for implementing the solar related distributed generation forum for the well-being of the residents. The program measured the maximum utilized power where the distributed generation and the photovoltaic rating added up to 36MW.Also, the nation of Sydney and its contribution to the solar power generation program athletes village cannot be taken for granted. In this case, the program comprises of 665 residents who are supplied with the 1kW photov oltaic power system. Nayar, Lawrance, and Phillips (1989) posit that to enhance the productivity of the program, the residential photovoltaic system is fixed with the inverter which is capable of generating efficient energy (about 415volts) to the people. One benefit of the distribution generations is that it is capable of assessing the failures of the system which makes power flow efficient. The solar system is a combination of multifaceted fabrications designed in such as manner to convert light into electricity energy to meet the daily demand. It is made of crucial building blocks such as photovoltaic cells and the inverter for efficient production and transfer of energy. Kalantar (2010) illustrates that the PV is responsible for converting the light energy into direct current (DC) which is then transferred to the battery via the charger for storage. The inverter now converts the Direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC), a necessary procedure for additional generation of power. The literature also provides information concerning the available solar panel technology and the inverter designs in the market. The production of solar panel can be traced back fifty years ago, and there have been improvements on them to the panels we have now. The production of the first solar panel took place in the 1950s at the Bell laboratories which produced few watts thus proving i t inefficient. Recent research done by Kalogirou (2001) indicates that in the 1980s the PV cells were improved, and the system could produce up to 100 watts. The output of the solar panel is substantially influenced by the temperature and the illumination of the PV cells. This means that if the meteorological conditions change, the output power also reduces. To ensure the requirements of the system are revised there grows to need to introduce maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The MPPT detects the power demand of the load as well as the inverter. Due to the comprehension of the output PVs output module, it is important to involve the DC-DC converter to monitor the direct current to the inverter. Mostly it plays a crucial role to boost the Maximum power point tracking voltage. The type of the system depends on the size of the solar panel, a cost of the system and the power requirement. Past research by Yilmaz and Krein (2013) postulate that the research undertaken by the European experts reveal that current ranging from 1-3kW was availed to the residents for use implying that the inverter was capable of producing an average rating of 2kW, a very suitable potential for the inverter. Because the inverters are responsible for switching mechanism, they are regarded as the primary contributors to voltage distortions. There has been a challenge of incorporating inverters because not all of them have the controllable switching schemes such as pulse width modulatio n (PWM) square wave inverters. According to Fakham, Lu and Francois (2011), there is no particular inverter design for residential PVIS. Therefore, to possibly understand the inverters and their potentiality, it is advisable to undertake the in-depth analysis of PVIS. By doing so, it is possible to determine DC provision and power generation perspectives. The research aims to bridge the gap existing as a result of the inclusion of inverters that are ineffective and dependent on the solar power although batteries are in place. The athlete's program of Sydney clearly illustrates how helpful the photovoltaic system was to support about six hundred and sixty-five residents (Bhandari et al., 2014). The most interesting part of it is that the inverters used converted 1kW into 3kW, favorable amount of power to support the people and their daily activities. Because the literature did not mention any influence emanating from the solar battery design, our full attention will, therefore, be directed to the solar panel and the inverters only. However, as the explanation of the concept of inverters and the solar panel is brought to light, things appear more confusing than before. This is because inverters are claimed to be the key contributors to the distortions arising from the system. Therefore, this research aims at determining the relationship s and effectiveness of solar panels and the inverters. What is the relationship between solar powers and inverters? What is the capability of the inverters in regards to energy production? What is the current gap for the system improvement? Scope of the Project The study will be covering the solar power system and the inverters capabilities to produce the expected powers of loads. This is because of unlimited resources and time-saving nature of the project. Also, the concepts behind power generation using the solar energy are entirely understandable among many people. Therefore, the focus on inverters and solar plate and cells is minimal but significant. The major issues under selection are the evaluation of hybrid inverters and solar battery charging, existing gaps for improvement and the relationship between inverters and the solar power. The study will adopt the experimental research design. Because the study seeks to establish the kind of relationship between the inverter and the photovoltaic cells, experimental research design will substantially be utilized. The research will take place under three meteorological conditions to establish the relationships existing for the subject. The participants will be grouped into three sections whereby they will be assigned different materials for the experiment. All the three groups will be provided with the specifications of the following tool: Relay, Setup Transformer, Load, 12V Solar Panel, 12V Battery, Charger, Resistors, DC Inverter, and Capacitors. Basing our research on the topic, there will be variations in the provision of solar panel and the inverters for the second and the third group. The first group will arrange and connect the tools properly and allow it to serve as the control experiment with the commonly used solar cell polysilicon and inverter in place. The se cond group will be issued with the same tools but with string inverter and Crystalline SiliconPanel while the third group will arrange for the micro inverter and Monocrystalline Silicon solar panel. Observation method of data collection will be used. The data will be recorded and the results analyzed. The data will be analyzed using statistical package for social science (SPSS). Proposed timeline Task Length 1. Meeting and discussing with the supervisor about the project 3days 2. Assessing the availability of required tools 1 week 3. Sourcing the participants 3days 4. Conducting the experiment 3days 5. Data collection and analysis 1week 6. Results and discussion 3days Eight capabilities Communication will be enhanced when defending the credibility of the project. In this case, communication forms the basis on which the student thrives and copes with various elements in the world. If the student is capable of displaying the potential of self-expression, there is a high possibility for articulating various issues to the involved parties. Because the project is school-based, the involvement of supervisor will greatly help in achieving communication skills while monitoring the activities of the participants. Working in a collaborative manner will be obtained by not only following the participating groups but also take personal initiative in the experiment and sharing the ideas with other members. Self-employment is a very significant stride to success since it will assess the worthiness of the project. If project results are declared active, it is possible to engage in self-employment through problem-solving skills. Problem-management will again be gauged with the success of all the approaches employed in conducting the research. Managing projects capability is the result of a project itself whose fruits will be the key determiner. Innovation and entrepreneurship will be exercised as a means to bridge the gaps existing after conducting research on problems facing the society. Critical thinking will be achieved by the ability to give positive recommendations for the project. Reflection on practice is the pathway to solving various problems in the engineering arena. Reflecting on this proj ect will be a source of motivation for future discovery. There are no specific ethical issues related to the project. The ethics of global warming is already solved. This is because solar energy does not in any way interfere with the wellbeing of the environment. Furthermore, solar power is a renewable sources of energy hence no cases of depletion of resources (Ma, Yang Lu, 2014). The solar power can provide service for at least twenty years if well maintained. In short, the project is healthy and should be accorded much attention for better results. Solar power is a sustainable source of energy because it is renewable. Currently, most households and businesses prefer solar energy due to the unpredictability of hydropower. Overall, solar power proves to be economic more than any other source of energy. Advantages and Disvantages of Solar Panel It is environmentally friendly as no pollution of any kind is experienced because the system is silent. 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