Kite Power Generation Project – Wind Power from Kites

The goal of this project was to study the feasibility of using tethered kites to generate power from the wind. Generating electricity using kites instead of wind turbines may have certain advantages, particularly for developing nations. These include generating power at low cost while eliminating certain environmental problems associated with wind turbines.  Another advantage is that kites can fly at greater heights than wind turbines can operate. Since wind speed increases with height, and available power is proportional to wind speed cubed, the wind power potential is larger for kites. A literature review was conducted of previous studies of kite power systems.  A mechanism was designed to convert the oscillating tether tension caused by the vertical motion of a kite into rotary shaft motion to drive a generator. The mechanism is based on a rocking, balanced beam of 5 meter length attached to a power train and Sprag clutch. The design uses a commercially available sport kite which is 10 meters squared in size. A previously developed MATLAB code was used to model the final system design, and power outputs comparable to small wind turbines were predicted.  

Download Full Project:

Wind_Power_Generation_from_Kites.pdf

Project on Smart House power System

This project implements a smart algorithm in order to power a house with a photovoltaic, batteries or the power grid.  For this project, we worked closely with a research team whose goal is to power a home with minimal power from the power grid.  In order to form this smart home, we needed to monitor the voltage and current flow from each of the sources (photovoltaic, batteries, and the grid) and the home.  We implemented these current and voltage monitors.  The next step was to come up with an algorithm that would determine what source should be powering the house and when the battery should be charged.  The final step was to send out data to a home display module so that the data can be analyzed.

 Download here: 

http://www.mediafire.com/?kkk8k19nri0t20i

Project on SINGLE PHASE POWER FACTOR CORRECTION CIRCUIT WITH WIDE OUTPUT VOLTAGE RANGE

The conventional power factor correction circuit has a fixed output voltage. However, in some applications, a PFC circuit with a wide output voltage range is needed. A single phase power factor correction circuit with wide output voltage range is developed in this work. After a comparison of two main power stage candidates (Buck+Boost and Sepic) in terms of efficiency, complexity, cost and device rating, the buck+boost converter is employed as the variable output PFC power stage. From the loss analysis, this topology has a high
efficiency from light load to heavy load. The control system of the variable output PFC circuit is analyzed and designed. Charge average current sensing scheme has been adopted to sense the input current. The problem
of high input harmonic currents at low output voltage is discussed. It is found that the current loop gain and cross over frequency will change greatly when the output voltage changes. To solve this problem, an automatic gain control scheme is proposed and a detailed circuit is designed and added to the current loop. A modified input current sensing scheme is presented to overcome the problem of an insufficient phase margin of the PFC circuit near the maximum output voltage. The charge average current sensing circuit will be bypassed automatically by a logical circuit when the output voltage is higher than the peak line voltage. Instead, a resistor is used to
sense the input current at that condition. Therefore, the phase delay caused by the charge average current sensing circuit is avoided.


Download lInks:
Power factor correction.Pdf

Total Project on Wind Turbine Construction

The purpose of this Post is to instruct how to build a wind turbine with rated power of 100 watts from cheap and easily available material. Model wind turbine was built in Helsinki University of Technology's engineering design workshop using mostly hand tools.

 Download Link:
 Wind Turbine Construction.Pdf

Project on 10KW SINGLE-PHASE IGBT INVERTER

Distributed Generation is an important area of the photovoltaic applications, and the inverter connected
between soloar panels and grid is the key component. In this paper, state-of-the-art inverter techniques,
including advanced predictive current control algorithm, fuzzy logic based MPPT method, accelerated phase shift anti-islanding algorithm, as well as communicaiton and remote control of the inverter were presented and employed in the developed singlephase IGBT PV inverter. Simulation results were also presented. The proposed inverter technologies have been verified through experiments on the developed 10kW IGBT PV inverter.

Download Link:

Single Phase IGBT.pdf

Project Title: DEVELOPMENT OF AN EFFICIENT SOLAR POWERED UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE WITH AN ONBOARD SOLAR TRACKER

The scope of electric powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions is primarily constrained by the relatively low flight endurance that is characteristic of electric powered UAVs. The purpose in utilizing solar energy to power UAVs is to increase UAV endurance capabilities and ultimately achieve indefinite sustained flight. Traditional solar powered UAVs are designed to statically fix the photovoltaic (PV) cells on the top surface of the wing, keeping the cells virtually parallel to the earth’s horizontal plane during normal flight. This puts significant restrictions on both where and what time of year a solar powered UAV is able to capture enough energy from the sun for the PV cells to be advantageous.

Download Links:

Unmanned aerial vehicle on board.tracker.pdf

Thesis on Renewable Electricity Options

Electricity generation is both a major contributor to the root causes of environmental unsustainability and an energy source that will likely play an important role in the transition to a sustainable society. Because renewable sources of electricity generation are seen as sustainable as a group, there is a danger that investments will be made in renewable technologies that do not effectively move society towards sustainability. We propose the use of a scientific, principles-based definition of sustainability to compare current and future renewable electricity options on their sustainability potential. This study presents a pilot decision-support comparison tool, Guide for Sustainable Energy Decisions (GSED), designed to give investors, policy makers, and manufacturers strategic guidance on the most effective renewable technologies to invest in for sustainability. The tool is based on a modified version of life cycle assessment (LCA) that allows comparisons of the upstream and downstream effects of generation technologies from a whole-systems sustainability perspective. Early feedback by experts suggests that the tool has strong potential to serve as an effective comparison tool and help decision-makers make strategic investments for sustainability.

Renewable Electricity Option.Pdf