Power Electronics in Renewable Energy Systems

The global electrical energy consumption is still rising and there is a steady demand to increase the power capacity. It is expected that it has to be doubled within 20 years. The production, distribution and use of the energy should be as technological efficient as possible and incentives to save energy at the end-user should also be set up. Deregulation of energy has lowered the investment in larger power plants, which means the need for new electrical power sources may be very high in the near future. Two major technologies will play important roles to solve the future problems. One is to change the electrical power production sources from the conventional, fossil (and short term) based energy sources to renewable energy resources. An other is to use high efficient power electronics in power generation, power transmission/distribution and end-user application. This paper discuss some of the most emerging renewable energy sources, wind energy and photovoltaic, which by means of power electronics are changing from being minor energy sources to be acting as important power sources in the energy system.