DESCRIPTION

Technical Description

Photovoltaic solar current can be used to feed into a public power grid (grid-connected operation) or for local consumption (stand-alone operation).

The ET 255 trainer allows typical electrical components to be studied for both possible uses of photovoltaics under different operating conditions.

It can be run both with actual solar modules (such as ET 250) and with the built-in photovoltaic simulator. Operation and parametrisation of the photovoltaic simulator is carried out via a dropdown menu in the software program. With relatively little effort, the photovoltaic simulator makes it possible to investigate the effects of changing illuminance and temperatures. 

A variety of software functions are available for capturing and displaying the measurement data. The efficiency and dynamic behaviour of the electrical system components can be studied by analysing these results. These experiments allow for detailed findings on the operation of inverters, charge controllers and MPP trackers. 

The ET 255 trainer is fitted with measuring points for current and voltage at the relevant points of the respective connection in order to be able to use external measurement instruments to study the principle of operation of the system components.

The well-structured instructional material sets out the basic principles and provides a step-by-step guide through the experiments.

Learning Objectives / Experiments

- application aspects of electrical components for photovoltaic systems
- efficiency and dynamic behaviour of system components in grid-connected and stand-alone operation
- function of MPP tracker
- function of inverters
- function of charge controllers
- behaviour of components under varying temperature and illuminance