Engineering Commons^™

Life Cycle Assessment Projection Of Photovoltaic Cells: A Case Study On Energy Demand Of Quantum Wire Based Photovoltaic Technology Research, Shilpi Mukherjee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing clean-energy demand, photovoltaic (PV) technologies have gained attention as potential long-term alternative to fossil fuel energy. However, PV research and manufacture still utilize fossil fuel-powered grid electricity. With continuous enhancement of solar conversion efficiency, it is imperative to assess whether overall life cycle efficiency is also being enhanced. Many new-material PV technologies are still in their research phase, and life cycle analyses of these technologies have not yet been performed. For best results, grid dependency must be minimized for PV research, and this can be accomplished by an analytical instrument called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

LCA is the …

Cascaded Inverters For Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems, Bailu Xiao

Doctoral Dissertations

With the extraordinary market growth in grid-connected PV systems, there is increasing interests in grid-connected PV inverters. Focus has been placed on cheap, high-efficiency, and innovative inverter solutions, leading to a high diversity within the inverters and new system configurations. This dissertation chooses cascaded multilevel inverter topologies for grid-connected PV systems to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency.

First, a single-phase cascaded H-bridge multilevel PV inverter is discussed. To maximize the solar energy extraction of each PV string, an individual maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control scheme is applied, which allows independent control of each dc-link voltage. A generalized …

Control Of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems Using Fractional Order Operators, Hadi Malek

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work presents a new peak seeking strategy for maximum power point operation using fractional order operators in the three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic systems. Moreover, fractional order controllers have been implemented in the voltage and current control loops. The simulation results and theoretical analysis indicate that the proposed fractional order control strategy improves the efficiency of the system by reducing the total harmonic distortion of the injected current to the grid and increases the robustness of the system against uncertainties. Additionally, the proposed maximum power point tracking algorithms provide more robustness and faster convergence speed under environmental variations than other maximum …

Optical Properties Of Solar Cells Based On Zinc(Hydr)Oxide And Its Composite With Graphite Oxide Sensitized By Quantum Dots, S. M. Zakirul Islam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis research focuses on developing a hybrid form of solar cell based on zinc(hydr)oxide and its composites with graphite oxide, TiO2, quantum dot, electrolyte and . This work expands upon the Gratzel solar cell with a dye in TiO2.

Due to various structural and optical characteristics, zinc(hydr)oxide (Zn(OH)2) and its porous composites with 2% and 5% graphite oxide(GO) can be used for various applications including the manufacture of various , protective elements in electric and electronic appliances, as gas-sensors, catalysts, in cosmetics a UV light absorber, and solar cells.

In this research, both TiO2 and zinc(hydr)oxide (refer as Zn(OH)2 …

The Effect Of Annealing On Amorphous Silicon Based Solar Photovoltaic Thermal System (Pv/T) And Appropriate Global Dispatch Strategies, Joseph Rozario

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Previous work has shown that high-temperature short-term spike thermal annealing of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems results in higher electrical energy output. The relationship between temperature and performance of a-Si:H PVT is not simple as high temperatures during thermal annealing improves the immediate electrical performance following an anneal, but during the anneal it creates a marked drop in electrical performance. In addition, the power generation of a-Si:H PVT depends on both the environmental conditions and the Staebler-Wronski Effect kinetics. In order to improve the performance of a-Si:H PVT systems further, this paper reports on the effect of …