F. J. Muñoz-Rodríguez

High-Concentrator Photovoltaic Power Plants: Energy Balance and Case Studies

High-concentrator photovoltaic (HCPV) power plants are inherently different from conventional photovoltaic (PV) power sources due to the use of concentrator modules and two-axis solar trackers. HCPV technology is a relatively new energy source; therefore, there is limited experience in its application in power plants. Bearing this in mind, this chapter aims to provide information about the special features and performance of HCPV power plants under real operating conditions. The analysis of current concentrator modules and solar trackers is addressed to achieve a better understanding of the main characteristics of this kind of systems. In addition, different methods for estimating the energy yield of an HCPV system or power plant are discussed. This is a crucial task to analyse the potential of such emerging technology. Finally, several HCPV power plants and relevant data concerning their energy yield and performance ratio (PR) are described and commented.

Efficiencies and Energy Balance in High-Concentrator Photovoltaic Devices

Actual and forecast high-concentrator photovoltaic (HCPV) systems efficiencies may provide a scenario where HCPV represents a potential alternative to flat PV technology. The present status of HCPV efficiencies will be studied, and, on this basis, future trends regarding HCPV cells, modules, and systems efficiencies will be forecast. It will be shown that HCPV technology represents a real alternative to the current PV systems. Guidelines and normalized documents are needed to assess the overall performance of HCPV systems and to provide a general assessment of the potential of HCPV technology. The International Standard IEC 61724 publication, Photovoltaic System Performance Monitoring—Guidelines for Measurement Data Exchange and Analysis, will be highlighted. Because these guidelines are specially addressed to flat-PV technology, some suggestions, especially those adapted to the particularities of HCPV systems on both monitored and derived parameters, will be covered. Moreover, different indices of performance and losses that intend to provide comparisons between different HCPV installations will be offered adapted to the HCPV idiosyncrasy. These comparisons may be extremely useful when it comes to optimizing HCPV installation technology.

Web app for a remote electronics instrumentation lab

In this paper the study, design, development and implementation of an app which manages to control through Internet a basic electronics lab bench, is presented. The app allows the remote control of the main functions of the four instruments that made up an Electronics bench: a power supply, a multimeter, a function generator and an oscilloscope.

High-Concentrator Photovoltaic Systems Configuration and Inverters

A high-concentrator photovoltaic (HCPV) system is the result of the electrical interconnection of several CPV modules with additional components denominated “balance of system.” The wide variety of elements that compose a module makes possible different types of HCPV systems, although the most widespread is the point-focus pedestal type. Among the elements that compose an HCPV system, the inverter, which has been studied deeply for flat-PV systems, should be adapted to the particularities of HCPV technology. A different definition of weighted efficiency is proposed that has been adapted to an HCPV system located in southern Spain. This definition is compared with other ones proposed by some authors within this technology and also with the most used conventional PV systems definitions, which are the European and Californian efficiencies. It is highlighted that the differences are minimal. Beyond that, a novel classification of the most common interconnection configurations is proposed and some experiments were performed to show that the maximum power point tracker methods traditionally used for standard PV systems are somehow also valid for HCPV systems.

Tool for the design and energy harvesting of grid-connected photovoltaic power installations: PV Excel Jaen 3.0

The software “PV Excel Jaén V3.0: Calculation of the energy harvested by a grid-connected photovoltaic system” is an educational tool which aims to help in the design and sizing of a grid-connected photovoltaic installation. This tool simulates its performance and provides results that enable students to evaluate several aspects such as: generator voltage and current, energy balance, and environmental impact.

Blended learning for photovoltaic systems: Virtual laboratory with PSPICE

A set of simple tools that allows a blended learning (B-learning) on photovoltaic systems is presented. The tools define a simulation environment based on PSPICE and may constitute a virtual laboratory. The latter allows students a better understanding of a photovoltaic cell, module or generator. Characteristic curves of photovoltaic systems and basic parameters such as voltage, current, power and energy can be obtained for further analysis and representation. Moreover, this virtual laboratory for photovoltaic systems offers students the possibility to compare the values previously calculated and simulated with real measurements.

Virtual laboratory for the training and learning of the subject solar resource: OrientSol 2.0

Nowadays there are a lot of problems concerning the use of energy among society, so a greater support to the renewable energies must be present. Some professors from the University of Jaen, Spain, have wide experience in the field of didactic resources for renewable energies subjects teaching. The use of solar energy in order to obtain electricity is called solar energy photovoltaic. This transformation is possible due to the photovoltaic effect. To design a photovoltaic system in any location it is essential to know the exact amount of solar resource available in the area. For this purpose, collecting data on solar radiation becomes crucial. Currently, there exist databases where we can find information on solar radiation but only for horizontal surfaces (known as global solar irradiance on horizontal surfaces). After this, by applying really complex mathematical equations and algorithms, it is possible to obtain solar radiation data for non-horizontal surfaces. In the present work a virtual laboratory which we developed by us is explained. The virtual laboratory “OrientSol 2.0” is an application developed with Matlab© which allows the users (students) to easily obtain the solar radiation on a non-horizontal surface (variations on tilt and orientation). Also, in this work we present all the experience acquired in some years at the University of Jaen when using this virtual laboratory by students from the following courses: Degree in Electronic Industrial Engineering and Master in Renewable Energy.

Educational tools in order to promote the self-learning. Practical case of study: Dimex SFCR

For the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the ETCS credit takes into account both the teaching hours and the student work. This approach involves a change in the methodological strategy used in the traditional teaching. The application of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) actively contributes to this change. In this work, an educational application, Dimex SFCR (Dimensionado de sistemas fotovoltaicos conectados a la red), is presented. It allows the student not only to design grid connected photovoltaic (GCPV) systems and to study the performance of this type of systems, but also helps them to understand the calculation methods con be used in an autonomous way.

B-learning of photovoltaics systems using oread PSPICE: "Work in progress"

In this work-in-progress, an educational tool based on a PSpice photovoltaic (PV) module simulation model is presented. An innovative practice relies on a monitoring system for PV applications that supports this didactic tool. The monitoring system manages to provide real data about the performance of the PV module such as irradiance, ambient temperature and the current, voltage and power of the PV module. Students can study and calculate the effect of irradiance and ambient temperatures on these variables. Afterwards, they use the simulation models provided to observe the PV module performance. Finally, both set of data (calculated and simulated) will be compared with the real data obtained from the monitoring of the PV module mentioned above. The tool here developed not only shows the effect of a given instantaneous solar irradiance and temperature upon photovoltaic cell and module performance but manages to show, through a friendly and didactic graphic interface, their performance throughout a determined interval of time (e.g. days), given real irradiance and ambient temperatures profiles obtained from the monitoring system. Moreover, this tool has a high potential as it can be added more functionalities as energy estimation and the effect of shadows on a PV generator.