Development of a Power Electronics Lab Course with Renewable Energy Applications

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 25.456.1
• Main Authors: Ochs, David S, Miller, Ruth Douglas
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 10.06.2012
• Subjects: Alternative energy; Circuit design; Circuits; Control systems design; Design; Documents; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Maximum power; Rectifiers; Renewable energy; Solar arrays; Solar collectors; Students; Wind turbines

- The field of power electronics is experiencing rapid growth, due in large part togreater use of renewable energy in power systems. Educators have been paying attention to thistrend as evidenced by a number of publications on new power electronics courses at universitiesthroughout the world. This paper presents a unique laboratory class that will help to preparestudents to work with and design power electronics, specifically those applied to renewableenergy. This lab course is unique because students work directly with renewable energy systemsor models of them in every lab. A complete lab manual and solutions manual have been preparedfor a junior or senior level or graduate level lab course in power electronics; highlights of whichwill be presented. The manuals will be made available upon request. The labs are designed toteach the basics of power electronics while showcasing some of their applications to renewableenergy systems.The labs make use of power electronics equipment specifically designed for classroom settings,as well as small wind turbines and solar panels set up for bench testing. The equipment is wellprotected and allows students to focus most of their time on the overall design and performanceof power electronic circuits. As part of the course, students build and test circuits such aschoppers, single-phase and three-phase inverters and rectifiers, and filters. They also designelementary control systems to see how power electronics are used for control. Students completethree multi-week projects: a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for a solar array, a sinusoidalpulse-width modulation controller, and a final project. The final project consists of a designchallenge to match a set of general requirements; the students must interpret the requirementsthemselves and complete their own design.The final project is developed along the same lines asthose in “project-based” lab classes that have been the subject of many recent publications. Thelabs have been integrated into an existing course on wind and solar engineering, with the goalthat they will eventually be the basis for a standalone undergraduate or graduate lab course onpower electronics. Feedback gathered from end-of-semester evaluations will be included in ourpaper and taken into account for future semesters.Lab OutlineSolar Labs1) Classifying solar panels2) Choppers and