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Special Issue "Recent Advancements in Sustainable Solar Photovoltaic Power Technology"

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2023 | Viewed by 3142

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Prince Winston David

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar 626001, India
Interests: renewable energy; solar PV systems; power drives

Dr. Praveen Kumar B

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Guest Editor

Department of EEE, Vardhaman College of Engineering, Hyderabad 501218, Telangana, India
Interests: solar PV systems; renewable energy; reconfiguration; optimization; energy sustainability; MPPT

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue in the journal Sustainability: “Recent Advancements in Sustainable Solar Photovoltaic Power Technology”.

Energy plays a decisive role in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as employment growth, industry, innovation, and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, clean energy, and climate change. Moreover, solar energy has huge potential as a source of electricity, space heating and cooling, water heating, energy storage, solar cooking, drying, distillation, industrial process heat, and much more. This Special Issue aims to provide a platform with which researchers may present new research findings as well as reviews of significant work in the field of solar photovoltaic systems and critical issues in solar power generation technology. We are particularly interested in papers presenting the latest achievements and current problems in solar power generation technology and proposing corresponding solutions to key technical challenges in the utilization of solar power, pointing out future directions for the sustainable development of solar power generation technology.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Modeling, simulation, optimization, and performance assessment of sustainable solar technologies
Environmental impacts, social aspects, policy, and economic aspects of sustainable solar technologies
Energy storage technologies
Solar based Hybrid PV/T systems
Floating solar plants
Solar in Agriculture
End of Life cycle and Circular Economy of sustainable solar systems
Solar applications in buildings
Maximum power point tracking techniques
Reconfiguration of solar PV system
Parameter estimation of PV cells

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Prince Winston David
Dr. Praveen Kumar Balachandran
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

solar energy
DC– DC converters
MPPT
solar PV
energy storage
demand-side response
building-integrated photovoltaics
partial shading in photovoltaic systems
design, modeling and optimization
parameter estimation
reconfiguration

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessArticle

A New Cuk-Based DC-DC Converter with Improved Efficiency and Lower Rated Voltage of Coupling Capacitor

Khaled A. Mahafzah

Ali Q. Al-Shetwi

M. A. Hannan

Thanikanti Sudhakar Babu

and

Nnamdi Nwulu

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8515; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118515 - 24 May 2023

Viewed by 388

Abstract

DC-DC converters play a crucial role in recent and advanced applications, enabling efficient power conversion and management for renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, portable devices, and advanced communication systems. In line with this, the objective of this paper is to introduce a new DC-DC configuration based on the Cuk converter named as Mahafzah converter, which utilizes a coupling capacitor with a lower rated voltage. The paper aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed converter in terms of improved efficiency, reduced size, and reduced semiconductor device currents compared to the conventional Cuk converter. The proposed configuration comprises the same components as the Cuk converter, but in a different arrangement, without any additional elements. The main advantage of the proposed converter is using a coupling capacitor with a much lower rated voltage than the Cuk converter, resulting in a smaller capacitor size, reduced printed circuit board (PCB) size, and manufacturing cost. Additionally, the proposed converter reduces the currents of the semiconductor devices compared to those in the Cuk converter. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the converter is operated under continuous current mode (CCM) with a constant duty cycle and switching frequency. The study provides an in-depth discussion of the various operating modes by making use of equations relating to currents, voltages, duty cycles, and voltage gains. It also provides detailed illustrations of the limits between CCM and discontinuous current mode (DCM). The effectiveness of the proposed converter is demonstrated through a design example with operating parameters of 1 kW, 200 V/−300 V, and 20 kHz. Additionally, a low voltage–low power prototype (12/−18 V, 3.24 W, 20 kHz) is established to verify the operation of the proposed converter. Simulation and experimental verification of the proposed configuration achieved the desired results to improve efficiency and reduce the rate. The results clearly indicate that the efficiency of the proposed converter surpasses that of the conventional Cuk converter under identical operating conditions, reaching approximately 88% at rated load conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Sustainable Solar Photovoltaic Power Technology)

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Open AccessArticle

Bifurcation Analysis of a Photovoltaic Power Source Interfacing a Current-Mode-Controlled Boost Converter with Limited Current Sensor Bandwidth for Maximum Power Point Tracking

Edwige Raissa Mache Kengne

Alain Soup Tewa Kammogne

and

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 6097; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076097 - 31 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 543

Abstract

The presence of a high ripple in the inductor current of a DC-DC converter in a photovoltaic converter chain leads to a considerable decrease in the energy efficiency of the converter. To solve this problem, we consider a current-mode control and for economic reasons we used a single inductor current sensor with a low-pass filter. The purpose of the low-pass filter is to minimize the effect of ripple in the inductor current by taking only the DC component of the signal at the output of the sensor for tracking the maximum power point. The objective of this paper is therefore to study the stability of the photovoltaic system as a function of the filter frequency while maintaining a good power level. First, we propose a general modeling of the whole system by linearizing the PV around the maximum power point. Floquet theory is used to determine analytically the stability of the overall system. The fourth-order Runge–Kutta method is used to plot bifurcation diagrams and Lyapunov exponents in MATLAB/SIMULINK when the filter frequency varies in a limited range and the ramp amplitude is taken as a control parameter. Secondly, the PSIM software is used to design the device and validate the results obtained in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The results depicted in MATLAB/SIMULINK are in perfect agreement with those obtained in PSIM. We found that not only is the energy level maintained at the maximum power level of

85.17

W, but also that the stability range of the photovoltaic system increased with the value of the filter cut-off frequency. This research offers a wider range of parameters for stability control of photovoltaic systems contrarily to others found in literature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Sustainable Solar Photovoltaic Power Technology)

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Open AccessArticle

An Intensified Marine Predator Algorithm (MPA) for Designing a Solar-Powered BLDC Motor Used in EV Systems

Rajesh Kanna Govindhan Radhakrishnan

Uthayakumar Marimuthu

Praveen Kumar Balachandran

Abdul Majid Mohd Shukry

and

Tomonobu Senjyu

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14120; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114120 - 29 Oct 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 808

Abstract

Recently, due to rapid growth in electric vehicle motors, used and power electronics have received a lot of concerns. 3ϕ induction motors and DC motors are two of the best and most researched electric vehicle (EV) motors. Developing countries have refined their solution with brushless DC (BLDC) motors for EVs. It is challenging to regulate the 3ϕ BLDC motor’s steady state, rising time, settling time, transient, overshoot, and other factors. The system may become unsteady, and the lifetime of the components may be shortened due to a break in control. The marine predator algorithm (MPA) is employed to propose an e-vehicle powered by the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique for photovoltaic (PV). The shortcomings of conventional MPPT techniques are addressed by the suggested approach of employing the MPA approach. As an outcome, the modeling would take less iteration to attain the initial stage, boosting the suggested system’s total performance. The PID (proportional integral derivative) is used to govern the speed of BLDC motors. The MPPT approach based on the MPA algorithm surpasses the variation in performance. In this research, the modeling of unique MPPT used in PV-based BLDC motor-driven electric vehicles is discussed. Various aspects, which are uneven sunlight, shade, and climate circumstances, play a part in the low performance in practical scenarios, highlighting the nonlinear properties of PV. The MPPT technique discussed in this paper can be used to increase total productivity and reduce the operating costs for e-vehicles based on the PV framework. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Sustainable Solar Photovoltaic Power Technology)

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Review

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Open AccessReview

Parameter Extraction of Solar Photovoltaic Cell and Module Models with Metaheuristic Algorithms: A Review

Zaiyu Gu

Guojiang Xiong

and

Xiaofan Fu

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3312; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043312 - 10 Feb 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 838

Abstract

As the photovoltaic (PV) market share continues to increase, accurate PV modeling will have a massive impact on the future energy landscape. Therefore, it is imperative to convert difficult-to-understand PV systems into understandable mathematical models through equivalent PV models. However, the multi-peaked, non-linear, and strongly coupled characteristics of PV models make it challenging to extract accurate parameters of PV models. Metaheuristics can address these challenges effectively regardless of gradients and function forms, and have gained increasing attention in solving this issue. This review surveys different metaheuristics to the PV model parameter extraction and explains multiple algorithms’ behavior. Some frequently used performance indicators to measure the effectiveness, robustness, accuracy, competitiveness, and resources consumed are tabulated and compared, and then the merits and demerits of different algorithms are outlined. The patterns of variation in the results extracted from different external environments were analyzed, and the corresponding literature was summarized. Then, challenges for both metaheuristics and application scenarios are analyzed. Finally, corresponding perspectives on future research are summarized as a valid reference for technological advances in PV model parameter extraction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Sustainable Solar Photovoltaic Power Technology)

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