Electricity and Electronics for Renewable Energy Technology By Ahmad Hemami

Electricity and Electronics for Renewable Energy Technology By Ahmad Hemami

Contents:

Chapter 1 Energy and Electricity

Chapter 2 Basic Mathematics and Systems of Measurement Units

Chapter 3 Atomic Structure of Materials

Chapter 4 DC and AC Electricity

Chapter 5 Voltage, Current, and Power

Chapter 6 DC Circuits Relationships

Chapter 7 DC Motors and Generators

Chapter 8 AC Circuits Relationships

Chapter 9 Three-Phase Systems

Chapter 10 Transformers

Chapter 11 AC Motors and Generators

Preface:

This book is not about wind, solar, or any other renewable energy. It is about general and particular subjects in electricity and electronics that a technical person working in the generation and distribution of electricity from renewable sources needs to know. The purpose is to bring together in one book a general knowledge, to a moderated level, about the ways and the devices that are used in

power generation from some renewable energy sources. Modern wind turbines and photovoltaic solar systems use power converters to generate commercial-level alternating current electricity. This is quite different from the conventional methods employed in hydroelectric and fossil fuel power plants. The difference lies in the fact that in photovoltaic solar systems electrical energy is initially in the form of direct current, and in wind turbines, depending on the modes of operation, either induction generators are used or synchronous generators rotating at varying speeds are employed. In both cases, conversion by power electronics is inevitable. The content of this book has been selected using numerous recommendations from the advisory committee members from industry for a 2-year program intended for training technicians to work in the wind industry. On the basis of their comments about the program and their expectation from the graduates working in the field, in addition to a knowledge of electricity, a general knowledge of basic electronics is essential, particularly as a preliminary step toward understanding the more advanced materials of gated transistors and power converters. Moreover, because, in practice, they must deal with and are exposed to PLCs and SCADA and industrial control in general, they need to have a fundamental and brief understanding of digital systems and digital electronics. This book is written as a textbook for college and university students whose major is not electrical engineering. As a result, the necessary material, which for electrical engineering students appears in several books and with more in-depth analysis, is covered in a single book. In this way, all material judged to be necessary and at the level considered to be sufficient is presented to the reader. The relatively more advanced materials for some chapters are put separately under “advanced learning,” which can be skipped by those schools/programs that prefer to do so. The advanced sections cover mathematics pertinent to the subject that within the chapter is described without extended mathematical analysis.

Recommendations from the reviewers about the content of the book, starting from simple subjects but having a fast pace to advanced material, were not uniform. Nevertheless, to make the book

 self-sufficient for many programs so that it can serve as the sole book for a few courses within a program, the content is kept as initially designed. In this respect, the first five chapters, dealing with the basics, can be skipped by some readers. In particular, for those students with insufficient knowledge of basic mathematics and also for those people in industry who want to use the text as a convenient reference book and may need a review to refresh their forgotten but necessary math skills, a chapter is devoted to basic mathematics. The book starts with the basics of electricity, no previous knowledge is necessary, but it has a rapid pace and gradually covers materials that are quite advanced. In terms of the coverage of mate rial, this a unique book of this caliber that brings several subjects of necessity together in a single volume. In addition, the pedagogic approach for certain topics, considered relatively difficult to understand by many, such as reactive power and the operation of a transistor, involves analogy to some more tangible physical systems. In this respect, certain analogies introduced in the book are for the first time ever.