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Design for Reliability of Power Electronics in Renewable Energy Systems

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Use, Operation and Maintenance of Renewable Energy Systems

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

Power electronics is the enabling technology for maximizing the power captured from renewable electrical generation, e.g., the wind and solar technology, and also for an efficient integration into the grid. Therefore, it is important that the power electronics are reliable and do not have too many failures during operation which otherwise will increase cost for operation, maintenance and reputation. Typically, power electronics in renewable electrical generation has to be designed for 20–30 years of operation, and in order to do that, it is crucial to know about the mission profile of the power electronics technology as well as to know how the power electronics technology is loaded in terms of temperature and other stressors relevant, to reliability. Hence, this chapter will show the basics of power electronics technology for renewable energy systems, describe the mission profile of the technology and demonstrate how the power electronics is loaded under different stressors. Further, some systematic methods to design the power electronics technology for reliability will be given and demonstrated with two cases—one is a wind power and the other is photovoltaic application.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Ke Ma, Yongheng Yang, Huai Wang & Frede Blaabjerg

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  1. Ke Ma
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  2. Yongheng Yang
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  4. Frede Blaabjerg
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Correspondence to Ke Ma .

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  1. Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain

    Miguel A. Sanz-Bobi

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Ma, K., Yang, Y., Wang, H., Blaabjerg, F. (2014). Design for Reliability of Power Electronics in Renewable Energy Systems. In: Sanz-Bobi, M. (eds) Use, Operation and Maintenance of Renewable Energy Systems. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03224-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03224-5_9

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