A Reliability Study of Photovoltaics Energy Systems in DC Microgrid

Abstract

In this paper, a lifetime of Photovoltaics PV is studied based on the evaluation of the reliability of the DC microgrid. The analysis has a comprehensive consideration of the elements of the inverter and converter composed of a renewable energy system and its process during bad weather as a supplementary measure for the intermittent output of renewable energy sources connected to the DC microgrid. A battery and a boost converter for the battery were used to keep the voltage constant. The output of the battery varies according to the output fluctuation of the renewable energy source. At this time, the life analysis result of the switching devices that are used in the boost converter is introduced. To prevent system downtime and increase maintenance costs due to converter failures connected to the battery, a converter life analysis is required. Considering that the main failure mechanism of switching devices used in converters is thermal stress, and power loss due to thermal stress. Based on the above, the lifetime characteristics of semiconductor devices are analyzed. The main contribution of this work is  conducting the lifetime analysis of solar energy system that is used in the DC microgrid with different weather conditions