POWER CONDITIONING

In the domestic PV / Fuel cell project, technical property was given to researching the main components of the system, such as the fuel cell, the electrolyser and the PV array. The manner in which these components work together to produce electricity (with seasonal storage) is not as well known or as well researched as the power conditioning aspect. As such, the issue of power conditioning was not as important to us as it would be otherwise.

The use of PV with battery/diesel generator backup to power appliances in remote locations is not new technology by any means. As such, there exist a detailed knowledge base on the use of inverters to condition PV electricity. The purpose of this part of the project was to simply identify what type of inverter would be more suitable for our needs, and to see if the concept of power conditioning would throw up any unexpected problems in our conceptual system.

Why we need power conditioning