Masters Theses

Jenna Vujic

Abstract

"In the field of innovative power sources, photovoltaics are playing an important role as a clean energy source. Because performance is dependent on instantaneous weather conditions, all stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems require an energy storage device. Batteries are not suitable for PV source applications due to depth of discharge restrictions, maintenance requirements and minimal power density availability. However, ultracapacitors (UCAPs) have a high power density, require little maintenance, and can be used in sequence with a dc-dc converter to maintain power output at an increased depth of discharge. This paper describes a PV-UCAP power system used to collect and compare solar radiation dependent charge rates over two voltage ranges: the traditional battery range from 35V to 48V and a longer, UCAP-specific range from 13V to 48V. A dataset of 800 charge cycles over 10 days was collected and analyzed. Using the Mann-Whitney hypothesis test, we found that the charge rates collected over the smaller voltage range are systematically different from the charge rates collected over the larger voltage range. The following three methods were used to estimate the variable instantaneous solar radiation during a given charge cycle: Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine Version 2.9.5 (SMARTS) method, vector angle of incidence (i vector) method, and direct beam solar radiation on collector (Ibc) method. The Ibc method shows the best correlation between charge rate and solar radiation estimation. The SMARTS method is preferred over the i vector method"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Elmore, A. Curt

Committee Member(s)

Cawlfield, Jeffrey D.
Crow, Mariesa

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Geological Engineering

Comments

A CD-ROM is available at the Missouri S&T Library in the back pocket of the thesis. The CD-R contains the standard operating procedure (SOP), all raw sensor data, and y/x transformed data collected while the system was operational. All documents have been prepared as Microsoft Word 97-2003 document files. The raw sensor data was prepared as text files. The scatterplots were prepared as Grapher 6 files.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2010

Pagination

ix, 29 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Rights

© 2010 Jenna Sue Vujic, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Energy storage -- Equipment and supplies -- AnalysisPhotovoltaic cellsSolar radiation -- MeasurementSupercapacitors

Thesis Number

T 9631

Print OCLC #

680528629

Electronic OCLC #

911203609

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