SOLAR PV INTEGRATED LIGHTER-THAN-AIR PLATFORM (LTAP) FOR AIRBORNE POWER GENERATION UNDER VARIABLE WIND GUST

摘要

Lighter-than-Air Platforms (LTAP) are used to deploy for a wide range of applications including surveillance, remote sensing and remote area power generation etc. Such applications require that an aerostat (static, tethered LTAP system) is equipped with sophisticated imaging camera along with high-powered radar, lidar or sodar systems and an efficient sensor network. This leads to the power source requirement ranges from 100 Watts to kilo Watts. One option of supplying power to the aerostat is to transmit power from a ground based diesel generator via ultra, ultra-light molecular-weight polyethylene based cable. However this choice is restricted by the operational altitude of the aerostat up to a few hundred meters only, due to the cable weight rises which is penultimate fraction of the total LTAP payload. We report on the development of a 5 kWatt-peak Solar PV (SPV) integrated LTAP system which provides on-board power. The primary challenge will be the efficient utilization of surface area for power generation without compromising on system stability. The envelope contour function (ECF) depends on LTAP volume and is dynamic in nature (spatially, temporally). The ECF impact on the SPV module output is expressed via Dynamic Module Fill Factor (DMFF) term. Besides this DMFF term, sudden wind gust also plays a significant role in dynamic positioning of the Lighter-than-Air Platform (LTAP) and its power generation. Preliminary testing summarizes the effect of horizontal wind gust and pitching motion of LTAP on power generation.