Engineering Commons^™

Benefits Of Near-Term Cloud Location Forecasting For Large Solar Pv, Timothy Robert Rudd

Master's Theses

As the ‘green’ energy movement continues to gain momentum, photovoltaic generation is becoming an increasingly popular source for new power generation. The primary focus of this paper is to demonstrate the benefits of close-to real-time cloud sensing for Photovoltaic generation. In order to benefit from this close-to real-time data, a source of cloud cover information is necessary. This paper looks into the potential of point insolation sensors to determine overhead cloud coverage. A look into design considerations and economic challenges of implementing such a monitoring system is included. The benefits of cloud location sensing are examined using computer simulations to …

Solar Instrumentation Lab, Rene Canedo Iii, Rong Gui Chen

Electrical Engineering

This project is a mobile platform that will allow experiments on different solar panels to be done easily while keeping the cost of the lab to a minimum. California Polytechnic State University’s motto is ‘learn by doing’ and this lab structure will allow students to get practical experience with photovoltaic cells and the instruments that are required to take measurements. The solar instrumentation lab is a potential hardware lab for the electrical engineering department’s Sustainable Electric Energy Conversion class EE 420 and Solar-Photovoltaic Systems Design EE 520. This group took the current solar structure as a base for the lab’s …

Photovoltaic Emulator Adaptable To Irradiance, Temperature And Panel Specific I-V Curves, Joseph Gamos Durago

Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the design and performance of a photovoltaic (PV) emulator. With increasing interest in renewable energies, large amounts of money and effort are being put into research and development for photovoltaic systems. The larger interest in PV systems has increased demand for appropriate equipment with which to test PV systems.

A photovoltaic emulator is a power supply with similar current and voltage characteristics as a PV panel. This work uses an existing power supply which is manipulated via Labview to emulate a photovoltaic panel. The emulator calculates a current-voltage (I-V) curve based on the user specified parameters of …

Free Space Optical Communications With High Intensity Laser Power Beaming, Daniel Edward Raible

ETD Archive

This research demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing high intensity laser power beaming (HILPB) systems as a conduit for robust free-space optical communications over large distances and in challenging atmospheric conditions. The uniqueness of vertical multi-junction (VMJ) photovoltaic cells used in HILPB systems in their ability to receive and to convert at high efficiency, very high intensity laser light of over 200 W/cm2, presents a unique opportunity for the development of the robust free space optical communication system by modulating information signals onto the transmitted high intensity photonic energy. Experiments were conducted to investigate and validate several optical communications concepts. A …