No abstract

This work aims at developing and validating mathematical models and empirically evaluating a water-film cooling system for commercial photovoltaic modules. Methodologically, thermal, electrical and climatological data measured in a specific purpose on-grid outdoor test unit were used. In this work they are used to study the improvement in the performance of photovoltaic energy production due to temperature reduction. The first-order state-space linear parametric model presents the best performance to predict the temperature of the uncooled photovoltaic modules, with normalised mean square error (NRMSE) of 86.75%. In contrast, the non-linear model performance of cooled photovoltaic modules is lower, with NRMSE of 44.5%; however, the results show that the performance of the complete thermoelectric model is satisfactory, with NRMSE of 76.38%. On the other hand, empirical tests showed that the cooling system reduces temperature in 15-19%, on average, and to a maximum of 35%. In terms of power, there are average gains of 5-9%, and maximum gains of 12%. Regarding gross generation, there are average gains of 2.3-6%, and maximum gains of 12%. It was concluded that it is possible to mathematically model and predict this generation using non-linear models with a 0.2% error between modelled and measured generation. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This work presents a detailed comparative analysis of dispersed versus centralized Alternating Current (AC)-coupling topologies and AC-coupling versus Direct Current (DC)-coupling topologies in autonomous Photovoltaic (PV)-diesel-battery microgrids for remote/isolated communities in the Brazilian Amazon region. The comparison concerned the power losses occurring in power conversion devices and in a low-voltage distribution network by using the balance-of-system (BOS) efficiency as a performance index. The analyses were performed by an analytical approach and by detailed computer simulations in MATLAB/Simulink software. Based on the matching factor (MF), the gain obtained in BOS efficiency is 1.5% for low values of the MF, and for high values of the MF, the centralized topology has the same BOS efficiency as the dispersed topology. In conclusion, this factor proved to be useful as a design parameter for selecting the optimal topology of a PV-diesel-battery microgrid.

No abstract

Agradeço aos professores Fernando A. A. Prado Jr., Marco A. Saidel e Dorel S. Ramos pela importante orientação e contribuições. Ao GEPEA, SAS e demais colaboradores pelo suporte. Ao Mateus Andrade e Juliana Ribbas, da comercializadora Delta Energia, pela colaboração com as simulação do NEWAVE e DECOMP. À Sinerconsult, por disponibilizar informações e um modelo para a análise da tarifa. Ao Marcos Z. Ueocka e Monique R. Setembre, pela dedicação ao CEAR e participação nas pesquisas. Às mães Vera Lúcia e Lúcia Helena pela importante colaboração em toda minha educação. Aos amigos, em especial às novas e importantes amizades conquistadas no PEA.