Solar PV based switched reluctance motor drive for low power medium speed applications

Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) is the most important renewable energy source which is gaining importance in all fields of electrical utility. Utilization of SPV source in electrical drives applications can bring about a considerable change in the present day energy crisis. Here an SPV based Switched Reluctance motor (SRM) drive is presented which can be utilized in low power high speed and medium speed applications. SRMs have inherent advantages of low inertia, low rotor losses, robustness and simple construction. The operation of the converter circuit is with respect to the reluctance variation of the rotating machine which makes it different from other drives. Here a converter circuit is designed for the operation of SRM from SPV source. The SPV characteristics are different from a constant DC source since the output power and voltage varies with insolation and temperature. The proposed system is verified using LabVIEW^TM Simulation and the results are discussed.