Renewable Energy Systems Spring 2012

Review Problems
PART A:
1- A 200V (rms), 50Hz single phase AC supply with a rated apparent power of
10kVA is used to supply power to an inductive load.
If the load is drawing 4200 W at a lagging power factor of 0.6 from the supply,
a) Calculate the current flowing from the supply to the load.
b) Find the percentage loading of the supply (i.e., the percentage of the
operating apparent power of the supply to the rated apparent power of the
supply).
If the active power that the load is drawing from the supply is increased to
8400W at the same power factor of 0.6 lagging,
c) What will be the new percentage loading of the supply?
d) Is this an acceptable operating condition? why?
If the power factor of the load is increased to 0.9 lagging by adding a capacitor in
parallel to the load while the power of the load is maintained at 8400W,
e) Calculate the reactive power of the capacitor, and hence, find the value of the
capacitance.
2- A sinusoidal voltage source can provide a voltage of 210V at a frequency of 50Hz
to a load with an impedance of 20 j10.
a) Write down the instantaneous voltage (voltage as a function of time) assuming
that the phase angle is zero.
b) Write down the voltage in the phasor form.
c) Find the angular frequency and the period of the voltage source.
d) Find the phasor form of the current passing through the impedance.
e) Is the current leading or lagging the voltage?
f) Find the active power, reactive power and apparent power of the load
g) Draw the power triangle.
3- A resistive load of 20 requires 2A of DC current, however, the only available
source in the utility is a 220V, 50Hz AC supply.
a) Draw a power electronics converter that can be used to supply this load.
b) Sketch the waveform of the voltage delivered to the load showing the intervals
at which each group of electronic switches is conducting.
c) Calculate the average voltage delivered to the load.
d) Determine the turn on angle of the first group of electronic switches if the turn
off angle of this group is .
e) Calculate the maximum current that can be delivered to this load.
4- A 50 DC load requires a voltage of 250V while the available supply is only
125V.
a) Sketch a DC chopper that can be used to supply the load with the required
voltage.
b) Determine the duty cycle of the electronic switch.

Renewable Energy Systems Spring 2012

c) Find the average input current of the chopper.
d) If the switch has an on time of 5ms, find the frequency of the switch.
e) If the on time of the switch is increased to 10ms, calculate the new frequency
of the switch.
5- The single phase inverter shown in figure is used to
supply power to an AC load from a 120 V DC supply.
The AC load can be represented by a resistance of 15.
Each switch is turned on for 10 ms and then turned off
for another 10 ms.
a) Sketch the output waveform of the output voltage
showing which switches are turned on during each period.
b) Calculate the rms output voltage and the active power delivered to the load.
c) Find the frequency of the output voltage.
d) If each switch is turned on for 10 ms and turned off for 20 ms, would the
power being delivered to the load increase or decrease? Why?

PART B:
6- A 40m diameter, 700kW wind turbine has its hub installed at a height of 50m in a
site with wind speeds that can be represented by Rayleigh wind statistics having an
average wind speed of 8m/s. The cut-in speed of the wind turbine is 3m/s, the rated
speed is 14m/s and the cut-out speed is 23m/s. The gear ratio of the gear box
connecting the shaft of the turbine to the shaft of the 4 pole three phase
synchronous generator of the turbine is 1:45. If the overall efficiency of the wind
turbine is assumed to be constant at all wind speeds and the air density at the hub
of the turbine is 1.225kg/m3, find:
a) the rotational speed of the rotor at rated wind speed if the tip speed ratio is
5.0.
b) the output power of the turbine at a wind speed of 7m/s
c) the output power of the turbine at a wind speed of 25m/s.
d) the rated output power of the turbine if the hub height is 65m, given that the
friction coefficient is assumed to be unchanged.
e) the annual output energy that can be generated from the wind turbine.
f) the frequency of the output voltage produced from the generator.
7- A 31m, 340kW wind turbine is installed at a site that a wind speed statistics
represented by Rayleigh PDF with an average wind speed of 8 m/s. The ideal
power curve of the turbine has a cut-in speed of 4m/s, a rated speed of 13 m/s and
cut-out speed of 25m/s.
a) Sketch the ideal wind power curve for this turbine.
b) Find the number of hours per year at which the wind speed is less than or equal
13m/s.
c) Find the number of hours per year at which the wind speed is more than 25m/s.

Renewable Energy Systems Spring 2012

d) Calculate the annual energy (kWh/yr) that the wind turbine will deliver when
the wind speed is between its rated value the cut-out speed.
e) Using the approximate relation for the capacity factor, estimate the fraction of
the annual energy delivered with winds that are above the rated wind speed
f) Find the annual energy in the wind if the efficiency of the wind turbine rotor is
46%, the gear box is 60% and the generator efficiency is 93%.
Note:
For the Rayleigh PDF, the cumulative distribution function is:

8- Suppose an anemometer mounted at a height of 10m on a level field with tall grass
(=0.15) shows an average wind speed of 6m/s.
a) Assuming Rayleigh statistics and an air density of 1.225kg/m3 estimate the
average wind power (W/m2) at a height of 80m.
b) Suppose a 1300kW wind turbine with 60m rotor diameter has its hub located at
a height of 80m in this site. Estimate the annual energy delivered (kWh/yr) if
the turbine has an overall efficiency of 30%.
c) What would the turbines capacity factor be?
9- The wind speeds at a certain location can be represented by Rayleigh statistics.
Using the approximate relation for the capacity factor of a wind turbine, derive an
expression for the wind speed that yields to the highest efficiency for the wind
turbine as a function of its rated power and blade diameter. What is the optimum
wind speed for:
a) The NEG/Micon 1000/60 wind turbine
b) The NEG/Micon 1000/54 wind turbine
10- A wind turbine is used to deliver 90000 kWh in a 30-day month using a 350 kW
three phase synchronous generator. The air density is 1.225kg/m3.
a) What capacity factor would be needed for the machine?
b) If the average wind speed is 5.25 m/s, and Rayleigh statistics apply, what
should the rotor diameter be? (Note: use the approximate relation for the
capacity factor)
c) If at a certain moment the turbine is producing its rated power (350 kW), what
would the wind speed be if the machine is 35% efficient at this operating point?
d) If the tip-speed ratio is assumed to be 4, what gear ratio would be needed to
match the speed of the blades to the speed of the rotor of the generator if the
generator needs to spin at 1500 rpm to deliver its rated power?
e) If the frequency of the output voltage of the generator is required to be 50Hz at
the rated output of the generator, what should the number of poles of the
generator be?

Renewable Energy Systems Spring 2012

PART C:
11- Suppose the I V curve for a PV module exposed to 1-sun (1 kW/m2) of irradiance
is as shown below:

a) What load resistance R would result in the maximum power delivered to the
panel at 1-sun?
b) How much power would that be?
Suppose the hour-by-hour irradiance striking this module is given in the table
below and the current (at any given voltage) is assumed to be directly proportional
to the irradiance while the open circuit voltage is assumed to be the same at all
irradiances.
c) Carefully draw the hour-by-hour I V curves for the module.
d) For the resistive load determined in (a), what would be the energy (watt-hr)
delivered by this panel during the day?
e) If the module is equipped with a maximum-power-point tracker, what energy
would be delivered during the day? What percentage improvement does it
provide?
Time
Irradiance (W/m2)
8A.M. and 4P.M.
200
9A.M. and 3P.M.
400
10A.M. and 2P.M.
600
11A.M. and 1P.M.
800
12P.M.
1000
(e.g., from 7:30 A.M. to 8:30 A.M. the irradiance averages 200 W/m2 which is
the same as from 3:30P.M. to 4:30P.M.).

Renewable Energy Systems Spring 2012

12- The open circuit voltage of a PV cell is 0.5V and the short circuit current is 2.4A.
The fill factor for this cell is 0.7% and the current at maximum power point is
1.9A.
a) Find voltage at maximum power point.
b) Sketch the I-V and the P-V characteristics of the cell showing all the relevant
values on the drawing.
13- The pyranometer placed at a certain location reads an irradiance of 900W/m2 and
the pyrheliometer placed at the same location reads 780W/m2. The solar altitude in
this case is 75o and the solar azimuth is 65 o. If a solar panel is placed in that
location at a tilt angle of 40 o and a surface azimuth of 15 o east of south. Estimate
the global irradiance on the surface of the panel if the ground reflectance is 0.31.
Note:
The model for estimating the diffuse irradiance on a tilted surface is:

Where
Gd is the diffuse irradiance on a horizontal surface
Gg is the global irradiance on a horizontal surface
is the tilt angle of the PV panel
s is the solar azimuth
c is the surface azimuth
is the solar altitude
is the angle of incidence on the tilted surface