NIT Warangal is one of the most sought-after Engineering colleges in India and is also an institute of national importance. With vision towards becoming a global knowledge hub, striving continuously in pursuit of excellence in education, research, entrepreneurship and technological services to the society, the institute recently welcomed Solar PV Training and Research system by Ecosense at their Chemical Engineering Department.
Solar PV Training and Research System
Ecosense’s Solar PV Training and Research System enables users to learn about Solar PV standalone technology. Using this system, a user gains knowledge in three fields of Solar PV Standalone systems:
1) Physics of Solar PV Panels — I-V and P-V characteristics, series and parallel connection of solar panels effect of irradiation, effect of temperature, effect of shadow, effect of tilting of panels, effect of geographical location etc.
2) Components and Assembly of standalone system — use of blocking diode, use of bypass diode, use of solar charge controller, use of solar inverter, difference between MPPT and PWM charge controllers, AC load, DC load, battery charging/ discharging characteristics, assembly of several components and power flow calculations in each branch.
3) Research in PV systems — Ecosense separately provides a research unit along with a standalone experimental system. Users can initiate research in maximum power point tracking using this unit. It has the provision of providing automatic as well as manual gate signals to charge the controller. Users can use his/ her own MPPT algorithm with any of the controllers to provide manual gate signals.
Technical Advantages of Solar PV Training and Research System
• An active measurement panel to measure different voltages, currents, and temperature
• User can vary Irradiation to simulate sunlight conditions during the day which further affects the temperature of the Solar Panel to study I-V and P-V characteristics under varying irradiation and temperature.
• Series and Parallel Combination of Solar Panels possible.
• Arrangement to tilt solar panels to study the effect of Tilt angle on PV module Power.
• Shading blades are provided to study the effect of shading on Solar PV.
• No connections are made internally to encourage users to learn how to connect different components to install a standalone Solar PV standalone power plant.
• Workout power flow calculations of Standalone PV power plant using charge controller, inverter, A.C. /D.C. load, and Battery.
• Option to provide external gate signals to charge controller via Function generator to study the effect of change in Duty Cycle of charge controller on PV Power.
• User can externally feed MPPT signal to study the effect of MPPT algorithm on PV Power.
• User can use his/her own MPPT algorithm to study the effect of the MPPT algorithm on PV Power
• User can plot Real-time PV, IV, V vs time, P vs Time, and I vs Time curves using proprietary PC Software.
• Perturb and Observe MPPT Algorithm
• IP 65-protected PV Panels
• Equipped with Handheld Solar Insolation measuring instrument
• Equipped with an angle measurement instrument
• Data can be saved in CSV format
• Graphs can be saved in image format
Ecosense installed Solar PV Training and Research System at NIT Warangal
Demonstration of Equipment Conducted
Ecosense also conducted a demonstration of equipment for training Professors and Scholars. This training program was focused on educating and training the professors, scholars, and technicians who will further train thousands of students and professionals to start their careers or business in this very field.