Development of a Smart Photovoltaic Cells system – SmartPV

https://smartpv.gr/

Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE (project code:Τ1EDK-01485)

During the last years there has been an increasing demand for the utilization of solar energy for electric-energy generation purposes. A rapid increase of the installed Photovoltaic (PV) capacity has been performed both in the European Union and outside Europe over the last 10 years and it is expected to continuously expand.

In the framework of the project SmartPV – “Development of a Smart Photovoltaic Cells system” (https://smartpv.gr) an innovative system that is responsible for the management of the energy produced from photovoltaic cells is implemented. The breakthrough of the Smart Photovoltaic Cells is that they comprise an integrated circuit (IC) that manages and processes the available power at the PV cell level in contrast to conventional PV systems that perform the energy management process in arrays of PV cells/panels.

The final IC is responsible for the maximization and management of the energy produced by each solar cell, the detection of malfunctions as well as the remote (through the power lines) control and monitoring of each Smart Solar Cell.

Specific research targets include:

• Design of high-efficiency energy conversion microelectronic circuitry (including DC/DC converter, H-brigde) with ultra-low-power parasitic consumption
• Design of digitally on-chip implemented MPPT unit to operate each cell to its maximum power without disturbing the operation of other cells
• Design of a control unit for the remote control of the DC/DC converter as well as of the H-bridge
• Design of the communication unit
• Development of the appropriate algorithms for the communication of each solar cell through the power lines

Results

• Development and experimental evaluation of a new energy conversion integrated circuit in conjunction with a solar cell, able to harvest solar energy in a smart way. The circuit was tested with successful results using multiple smart solar cells.

Consortium