Cambridge Scholars Publishing Renewable Energy: Selected Issues Volume II

From a scientific point of view, several challenges to renewable energy come from the intermittent nature of energy sources such as wind, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal. These problems are currently being addressed with research on power electronics converters, storage systems, Artificial Intelligence techniques, new materials and production technologies, numerical analysis techniques, among others. This research endeavours to reduce costs and find alternative energy sources that are competitive with fossil fuels. Consequently, these efforts of the scientific community will contribute to improving the quality of life on the planet. This book summarises ten years of contributions to these topics, and contains a selection of the best papers presented at the International Conferences on Renewable Energy and Power Quality (ICREPQ) from 2003 to 2012. These contributions have been selected by a team of voluntary reviewers, with two to four reviewers assigned to each paper. At the end of this process only about 5% of all presented papers were selected. Considering each paper had been reviewed before, in order to be accepted for the conference, the selected papers represent “the best of the best”. The contributors to this book represent some of the leading authorities in their areas of expertise. This book will be of particular interest to professional engineers and researchers dealing with renewable energy exploitation, but will also prove useful to postgraduate level students. In addition, it can be used as a reference book for engineers, physicists and mathematicians who are interested and involved in the operation, project management, design, and analysis of renewable sources equipment. About the Author Manuel Pérez-Donsión is is Full Professor of the Electrical Engineering Department of Vigo University, Spain, and Chairman of the International Steering Committee of the International Conference on Renewable Energy and Power Quality. He is also President of the European Association for the Development of Renewable Energies, Environment and Power Quality, and the Spanish Association for the Development of Electrical Engineering, and Vice-President of the Portuguese Association for the Development of Electrical Engineering. He is the recipient of the Gold Emblem of the “Galicia Green Week Foundation” (in 1998) and the Gold Medal of the Escuela de Enxeñería Industrial of Vigo University (in 2012). He has authored six books and more than one hundred research papers, a number of which were published in various international journals. Silvano Vergura is currently Aggregate Professor at Politecnico di Bari, Italy, teaching Electrotechnics. His research interests concern the monitoring of renewable energy sources, devoting particular attention to the energy performance analysis of photovoltaic plants, nonlinear systems, and smart cities. He is currently in charge of a pilot-project for a smart city, organised by the Minister of Education, University and Research, and has served as a member of the International Program Committee for several international conferences and symposia. He has also authored and co-authored over 70 international publications. Gianpaolo Vitale is a Senior Researcher of the Institute on Intelligent Systems for Automation of the National Research Council of Italy, and became Adjunct Professor of Power Electronics in 2013. He is Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and has published two books and over one hundred scientific articles, and his research interests concern power electronics, power generation from renewable sources, and the problems of electromagnetic compatibility.