Portable PVenergy conversion system suitable for educational purposes; part 1: Pollution reduction rate and reactive power delivery estimation

Abstract

This paper is the first part of a three-part consecutive series regarding the design of a new portable photovoltaic (PV) generation system used for teaching the energy conversion process of a real PV system. This design is to comply with a national effort known as the SunShot initiative which aims to leverage the awareness of renewable resources, particularly PV generation systems. The experimental set for this design includes a PV panel, an inverter, a typical load, two MyDAQs as the data acquisition system, a laptop to run the LabVIEW program, and a 32" TV monitor to display the results. To be suitable for educational purposes, the system is designed to show three aspects of the system: pollution reduction rate, power conversion process, and the axillary services that a real PV generation system can offer to the grid. This paper particularly presents three objectives: 1) design the PV-powered cart, 2) analyze the pollution reduction capability, and 3) estimate the amount of reactive power available to be delivered to the grid. The specifications of the materials used for this design are presented along with the developed program used under Lab VIEW to visualize those aspects. The impact of this design on leveraging the awareness of PV generation system is significant, particularly for the next generation workforce of the power industry.