Problem Set 3

[1] Suppose that a nearly depleted 12-V lead-acid battery has an open-circuit voltage of
11.7 V and an internal resistance of 0.03 O.
(a) What voltage would a PV module operate at if it is delivering 6 A to the battery?
(b) If 20 A is drawn from a fully charged battery with open-circuit voltage 12.7 V, what
voltage would the PV module operate at?
Solution:
An ideal battery is one in which the voltage remains constant no matter how much current is
drawn. This means that it will have an I V curve that is simply a straight up-and-down line
as shown in Fig. a. A real battery, on the other hand, has some internal resistance and is often
modeled with an equivalent circuit consisting of an ideal battery of voltage V
B
in series with
some internal resistance R
i
as shown in Fig. b. During the charge cycle, with positive current
flow into the battery, we can write

I R V V
i B
=


Fig. a


Fig. b

(a) Therefore the voltage drop will be

V 88 . 11 6 03 . 0 7 . 11 = + = + = I R V V
i B


(b) When the battery is discharging, we have

V 1 . 12 20 03 . 0 7 . 12 = = = I R V V
i B


Note that this sets the voltage across the load. Therefore the PV needs to operate at this
voltage as well.

[2] Consider a 72-cell, series connected, PV module, where each cell has parallel resistance
of R
P
= 6 O and a series resistance of R
S
= 5 mO. With 1-sun insolation (1 kW/m
2
),
each cell has a short-circuit current (I
SC
) of 3.4 A and at 25 C, its reverse saturation
current is I
0
= 6 10
10
A.
(a) Find the voltage, current, and power delivered when the junction voltage of each
cell is 0.55 V.
(b) Let us now assume that the top two cells are shaded while the rest of the cells
receive full sun. Find the voltage drop and power dissipated in the shaded cells.
(c) Let us now connect another identical 72-cell, series connected module in parallel
with the module discussed above. Assume that none of the cells of the newly
introduced module is shaded. Discuss the problem this will create and suggest a
necessary modification to overcome this problem with relevant diagrams.
Solution:
(a) For V
d
= 0.55 V, and with the data given, we get

( ) ( ) A 134 . 2
0 . 6
55 . 0
1 10 6 4 . 3 1
395 . 21 10 9 . 38
0
= = =

e
R
V
e I I I
P
d
V
SC
d


Therefore the module voltage will be

( ) V 83 . 38 005 . 0 134 . 2 55 . 0 72 = =
m
V

The power delivered is then

W 87 . 82 134 . 2 83 . 38 = = = I V P
m


(b) The output voltage when the two top cells are shaded is

( )
S P n SH
R R I V V + =

2
2


where

V 75 . 37 83 . 38
72
70 2
2
= =
|
.
|

\
|
=

V
n
n
V
n


Also I = 2.134 A. Therefore the output voltage is

( ) V 12 . 12 005 . 0 6 134 . 2 2 75 . 37 = + =
SH
V

Therefore the voltage drop in the shaded cells is 37.75 12.12 = 25.63 V. The power
dissipated in the shaded cells = 25.63 2.134 = 54.69 W.


(c) The new module will generate a voltage of 38.83 V, while the shaded module will
generate 12.12 V. This will cause a circulating current to flow between the modules. To
prevent this, we can use blocking diodes as shown below.



[3] The output of a PV array is connected to a dc-dc boost converter, which is switched at
50 kHz. The converter supplies a load with a resistance of 15 O. The data obtained
from PV V-I characteristics are listed in table below for two different times of the day.
Calculate how long the dc-dc boost converter switch must remain closed (t
on
) and open
(t
off
) in either case such that the maximum power is supplied to the load.
Time of day Solar insolation (W/m
2
)
Maximum Power Point
V
m
(V) I
m
(A)
Noon 991 18.0 5.5
3 PM 677 17.8 3.75

Solution:
The dc-dc converter has a switching frequency of 50 kHz. Therefore the time period is T =
1/(5010
3
) = 20 s.

Noon: The maximum power delivered by the array is 18 5.5 = 99 W. If we have to deliver
this amount of power through a 15 O, the voltage needs to be

V 54 . 38 1485 15 99 = = =
R R
V V

Therefore

53 . 0
1
1
18
54 . 38
=

= D
D


Hence

s 4 . 9 6 . 10 20
s 6 . 10 20 53 . 0
= =
= = =
off
on
t
DT t



3 PM: The maximum power delivered by the array is 17.8 3.75 = 66.75 W. If we have to
deliver this amount of power through a 15 O, the voltage needs to be


V 64 . 31 25 . 1001 15 75 . 66 = = =
R R
V V

Therefore

44 . 0
1
1
8 . 17
64 . 31
=

= D
D


Hence

s 2 . 11 8 . 8 20
s 8 . 8 20 44 . 0
= =
= = =
off
on
t
DT t