12/09/2021
By Sokny Long

The Francis College of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Dhawal Asthana on “Integration of Solar/ Wind Micro-grid System.”

Ph.D. Candidate Name: Dhawal N. Asthana
Defense Date: Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021
Time: 2 to 3:30 p.m. EST
Location: This will be a virtual defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should dhawal_asthana@student.uml.edu and committee advisor, samson_milshtein@uml.edu, at least 24 hours prior to the defense to request access to the meeting.

Committee Chair (Advisor): Samson Mil’shtein, Professor Emeritus, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UMass Lowell

Committee Members:

  • John Palma, Associate Teaching Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UMass Lowell
  • Siavash Pakdelian, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UMass Lowell

Brief Abstract:
The thesis address solutions to challenges low efficiency and intermittence that hamper proliferation of solar photovoltaics and wind generation in the existing energy mix used for generation of electricity. Proposed solutions to these challenges include enhancement of efficiency of solar cells, and synchronized control of hybrid wind/solar generation. The first section presents the idea of increasing the overall efficiency of solar cells introducing multiple intrinsic regions made up of CdS, CdS0.47Se0.53 and CdSe in cascade with varying energy band gaps within the generic structure of a solar cell made up. The overall structure of the solar cell simulated on SILVACO consists of p type CdS as anode n-type CdSe as cathode. A detailed comparative assessment in terms of performance and manufacturability is presented in the chapter that follows. Another chapter deals with a novel design of hetero-structured a-Si/poly-Si that achieves high levels of efficiency cost-effectively. The next section presents a design of a solar/wind micro-scale power system, mutually synchronized for realization of stable output power characteristics which is implemented by means of an electronic circuit with an embedded control algorithm. The results presented in this section showcase successful optimization and curtailment of output power from solar PV panels through implementation of dual axis tracking and single axis anti-tracking. The following chapter presents the results of a novel algorithm that implements tracking and anti-tracking of orientation of maximum power generation for small scale wind turbines through yaw-angle control. The final section presents an exhaustive economic assessment in terms of generation costs for a distributed generation (DG) scale hybrid wind/solar PV farm equipped with dual axis solar tracking and anti-tracking technologies.

All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend the online defense via remote access.