CFES Energy Seminar
AC Solar Cells: A New Breed of PV Power Generation
Date: Monday, October 17, 2011
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Location: Room JEC3117, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Speaker: Prof. Faisal Khan
University of Utah
Abstract: An ac solar cell produces ac output that can be directly connected to the grid. All power
conversion and control components in an ac cell are embedded on the same substrate. This novel integration
could reduce the installation complexity and enable direct grid interface. It could also eliminate the
“hotspot” and partial shading problems present in large size panels, and ensure maximum power harvesting
at challenging illumination situations with a substantial 10%-20% cost reduction in terms of $/W. In
addition, the use of monolithic integration and smart choice of power converters would result in a maximum
power savings of 23% and would thus encourage a greater adoption of multijunction solar cells. The modular design is highly repetitive and is also likely
to reduce the energy cost involved in the manufacturing process of
conventional power converters made from discrete components.
The basic power conversion approach selected for ac cells will be an
inductor-free switched capacitor circuit. The talk will review the integrated
silicon processing technique and discuss guidelines for solar cell designers to
fabricate various components in a power converter circuit including
capacitors, MOSFETs/IGBTs/JFETs and other necessary components to
ensure the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) operation along with the
necessary dc-ac conversion.
Speaker: Dr. Faisal Khan received his BSc, MS and PhD degrees from Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology, Arizona State University, and University of Tennessee in 1999, 2003 and
2007 respectively – all in electrical engineering. From 2007-2009, he was with the Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI) as a senior power electronics engineer. Since 2009, he has been with the electrical and
computer engineering department of University of Utah as an Assistant Professor.
Dr. Khan’s major area of interest is high-power capacitor-clamped converters. Since his appointment at the
university, Dr. Khan has extended his research into the field of photovoltaic. Presently, he is involved in the
cell-level power converter design for single-junction and multi-junction solar cells. Dr. Khan is a member of
the IEEE Power Electronics Society, Industry Applications Society and Industrial Electronics Society. He is
the recipient of the 2007 IEEE IAS first prize paper award for his contribution to high power modular
multilevel dc-dc converters. He will be the award chair of IEEE ECCE 2012 and the general chair of IEEE
COMPEL 2013 to be held in Salt Lake City.
Contacts: For general questions about the seminar and CFES research, contact Dr. Jian Sun, Director of
CFES at jsun@rpi.edu, telephone 518 276-8297. For directions to the seminar room and other logistics,
please contact Lisa Valenti at valenl@rpi.edu, telephone (518) 276-6754.