Faculty: Tanveer Abbas, Noman Khan
Renewable energy sources require adequate control and power processing to be safely connected to utility grid or even to be directly connected to local loads, e.g. when operating in islanding conditions. This motivates substantial research in power converters devoted to optimize the exploitation of the sources and to properly regulate the power delivery to loads and/or the utility grid. The Power Electronics Group at DEI is actively participating to this worldwide research effort.
The purpose of the research program on renewable energy sources is to study devices, circuits and related control techniques for the exploitation of renewable energy sources, with particular emphasis on the photovoltaic and hydrogen proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technologies. The energy flowing from these sources needs to be properly converted before it is delivered to the typical users, the most important being the utility grid itself. The conversion processes can be effectively performed by switching power converters, whose ideal, target characteristics are: high conversion efficiency, minimal generation of electromagnetic noise, high reliability and maximum power density (minimum volume occupation for a given amount of processed power). The study of such switching converters involves both the development of novel topologies and the identification of suitable control strategies, allowing the achievement of the expected performance.
The areas covered by the research program are: