Collaborative Research: Stacked Controlled-Cell Power Conversion Architecture for Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这项研究的目标是开发一种新的光伏发电转换架构，对现有技术进行实质性改进，包括更大的能源提取；增强了对部分阴影、细胞错配和老化的鲁棒性；提高了系统可靠性，降低了成本。该方法是利用集成的CMOS功率转换和控制电路来创建？可控光伏电池？可以堆叠成串联串，连接到大功率并网逆变器。这项工作是一项跨学科的努力，将发展和融合纳米材料、集成电路设计、电源拓扑和非线性动力学方面的进步，以大大提高光伏系统的性能水平。更广泛的影响本项目开发的方法可以在光伏发电量、系统成本、可靠性和系统效率方面提供重大改进。这将加速光伏技术的应用，提高发电量，以更低的成本为社会提供清洁能源。本科生和研究生将为研究做出贡献，并将有机会发展他们的研究技能。将鼓励代表性不足的群体参与，并向这些群体中的个人提供认真的指导。跨大学的研究合作将得到加强和扩大，以包括教育活动，例如编制与研究有关的课程和教育媒介。与麻省理工学院太阳能汽车团队和一所小学的合作伙伴关系将用于发展对K-12学生的推广，以促进科学和工程。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The objective of this research is to develop a new architecture for photovoltaic power conversion that provides substantial improvements over existing technology, including greater energy extraction; improved robustness to partial shading, cell mismatch and aging; and improved system reliability and reduced cost. The approach is to use integrated CMOS power conversion and control circuits to create ?controlled PV cells? that can be stacked in series strings for connection to a high-power grid-tie inverter. Intellectual MeritThe work is an interdisciplinary effort that will develop and merge advances in nanomaterials, IC circuit design, power topologies, and nonlinear dynamics to achieve greatly improved levels of performance in PV systems. Broader ImpactsThe approach developed by this project can provide major improvements in PV power yield, system cost, reliability, and system efficiency. This will accelerate application of PV technologies and allow greater power yield, providing society with clean energy at lower cost. Undergraduate and graduate students will contribute to the research and will be provided with opportunities to develop their research skills. Participation of underrepresented groups will be encouraged, and individuals in these groups will be provided with careful mentoring. A cross-university research collaboration will be strengthened and extended to include educational activities, such as development of curricula and educational media linked to the research. Partnerships with the MIT Solar Car Team and an elementary school will be used to develop outreach to K-12 students to promote science and engineering.