Engineering Commons^™

Dynamic Analysis Of A Microgrid Powered With An Inverter And Machine-Based Distributed Resources, Brandon William Blackstone

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The proliferation of renewable distributed energy resources, particularly photovoltaic (PV) power systems, and the increasing need for a reliable power supply has led to the concept of microgrids, a mini-grid that consists of locally connected power generation units and needs, able to operate connected or disconnected from the utility grid, using controlled and coordinated methods to provide for the users of the microgrid the best possible conditions for their needs. The main technical issues facing microgrids include some of the following, seamless transition from stand-alone to utility grid connected operation, how to preserve frequency and voltage stability, and provide the …

Photovoltaics: An Investigation Into The Origins Of Efficiency On All Scales, Jeremy Alexander Bannister

Senior Projects Spring 2016

This project is comprised of a set of parallel investigations, which share the common mo- tivation of increasing the efficiency of photovoltaics. First, the reader is introduced to core concepts of photovoltaic energy conversion via a semi-classical description of the phys- ical system. Second, a key player in photovoltaic efficiency calculations, the exciton, is discussed in greater quantum mechanical detail. The reader will be taken through a nu- merical derivation of the low-energy exciton states in various geometries, including a line segment, a circle and a sphere. These numerical calculations are done using Mathematica, a computer program which, due to …

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 …

Gis-Based Suitability Modeling And Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis For Utility Scale Solar Plants In Four States In The Southeast Us, Kata Tisza

All Theses

Photovoltaic (PV) development shows significantly smaller growth in the Southeast U.S., than in the Southwest; which is mainly due to the low cost of fossil-fuel based energy production in the region and the lack of solar incentives. However, the Southeast has appropriate insolation conditions (4.0-6.0 KWh/m2/day) for photovoltaic deployment and in the past decade the region has experienced the highest population growth for the entire country. These factors, combined with new renewable energy portfolio policies, could create an opportunity for PV to provide some of the energy that will be required to sustain this growth. The goal of the study …