Design considerations for energy storage power electronics interfaces for high penetration of renewable energy sources

Abstract

This paper discusses design considerations of power electronics interfaces between renewable energy sources and energy storage. When renewable energy sources-including photovoltaic modules, wind generators, and fuel cells-are used to generate power, there are certain electrical properties of each source that need to be considered for the design of energy storage power electronics interface. In addition, energy storage's charging and discharging characteristics also need to be considered in order to maintain its long life and high reliability. In this paper, properties of renewable energy sources and energy storage are discussed to obtain design considerations for power electronics interfaces. Moreover, different converter types for various applications will be introduced and discussed to acquire a suitable design. Finally, a design example of an interface for photovoltaic applications will be presented and verified by computer simulations.