Single stage boost inverter-based perturbation technique for online impedance spectroscopy measurements of solar PV panels

Akparibo, Awingot Richard

Single stage boost inverter-based perturbation technique for online impedance spectroscopy measurements of solar PV panels

Thesis / Dissertation

2026

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Electrical Engineering

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Abstract

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is a technique used to characterise the internal mechanisms and dynamic processes taking place within Electrochemical Power Sources and Solid-State Devices such as solar PV cells, batteries and fuel cells. This will enable tracking of their State of Health and monitoring performance loss due to degradation or operational anomalies such as hotspot, partial shading and dust settlement on the solar PV panel. This research proposes a novel online EIS for solar PV panels based on the application of a single stage boost DC-AC inverter topology. Although the single stage boost inverter topologies have gained popularity for their compactness, high voltage gain and high efficiencies, they have not been exploited for online EIS diagnostic functionality for the solar PV device like the traditional online EIS based on the two stage DC-DC-AC topology due to several challenges. The research is set to unpack some of these challenges and propose new EIS measurement techniques based on the single stage boost DC-AC inverter topology. The traditional online EIS becomes fundamental for understanding the problems and validating the online EIS results of the newly proposed research work. The challenges confronting EIS implementations such as the frequency range, cost, and practical hardware limitations on achieving high bandwidth for effective impedance spectroscopy extraction of the solar PV panel are addressed. Simulations and experimental results verified the proposed research, and all the online EIS results of the proposed technique were validated against the traditional online EIS and the commercial offline frequency response analyzer. The study findings are particularly relevant for PV applications, where the requirement of a single stage boost inverter is crucial for optimizing PV operations and lowering costs of system design.

Keywords

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

solar PV cells

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

Full item page