Design of Variable-Speed Dish-Stirling Solar–Thermal Power Plant for Maximum Energy Harness

Abstract

Analysis on a developed dynamic model of the dish-Stirling (DS) system shows that maximum solar energy harness can be realized through controlling the Stirling engine speed. Toward this end, a control scheme is proposed for the doubly fed induction generator coupled to the DS system, as a means to achieve maximum power point tracking as the solar insolation level varies. Furthermore, the adopted fuzzy supervisory control technique is shown to be effective in controlling the temperature of the receiver in the DS system as the speed changes. Simulation results and experimental measurements validate the maximum energy harness ability of the proposed variable-speed DS solar–thermal system.