PhD. Pedro Manuel Rodrigo Cruz

The overall aim of the UltraMicroCPV project is to investigate new concepts of micro-scale hybrid thermoelectric-concentrator photovoltaic modules at ultra-high light concentration factors and to develop unprecedented high-efficiency low-cost proof-of-concept hybrid modules. The Principal Investigators of this project are Eduardo F. Fernández and Florencia M. Almonacid.

The aim of this project is to analyse, design and develop new configurations for ultra-high concentration modules, with the objective of finding lightweight, compact, low-cost and high-efficiency prototypes. The Principal Investigators of this project are Eduardo F. Fernández and Florencia M. Almonacid.

In this project, a first-of-its-kind “open-loop” solar tracker was designed and developed, which executes the tracking algorithm in the Firebase web service and allows the exchange of data with said service through a NodeMCU development board, which has an integrated Wi-Fi module. After an experimental campaign in Aguascalientes, central Mexico, gains in terms of collected energy on average were measured at 29.9% in May compared to an optimally tilted fixed photovoltaic system. The Principal Investigator of this project was Sebastián Gutiérrez.

The aim of this project was to measure the power losses due to soiling of photovoltaic panels in Aguascalientes. With the help of an experimental set-up, the soiling rate in the dry season was quantified. A model based on the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) estimated the cleaning schedule for different kinds of photovoltaic plants in this region. The Principal Investigator of this project was Pedro M. Rodrigo.

In this project, the models for the performance prediction of high concentrator photovoltaic power plants were developed and experimentally validated. Among other topics, the impact of self-shading between sun trackers was modelled and quantified. This analysis helped in optimising the distances between sun trackers and layout of the plants. The Principal Investigator of this project was Pedro J. Pérez-Higueras.

The aim of this project was to develop new tools for the energy prediction of grid-connected photovoltaic plants based on artificial neural networks. The Principal Investigator of this project was Florencia M. Almonacid.

This thesis aimed to analyse the prospectives of the energy sector at Aguascalientes and how they are related to the productive sector activities such as industry, commerce, services, and the contribution of these sectors to the economic activity of the State allowing a growth of the Gross Domestic Product.

This thesis aimed to design and develop a prototype of domotic system implemented by free software, with the objective of lowering the development costs and offering a system able to improve the interaction of users with devices at home, such as the blind automation, improving the comfort and satisfaction in the houses of Aguascalientes City.

This thesis presents in detail the design of a modular multilevel converter (MMC) with bidirectional power flow, which reduces the number of stages in an energy storage system (ESS) and allows the supercapacitors to be connected to the grid for performing the high power transfer. A traditional ESS has four main stages or subsystems: the energy storage device, the balancing system, and the DC/DC and DC/AC converters. In this development, an ESS based on MMC that has all those functions in one circuit is proposed. The study analyses the structure in both power flow directions and presents a prototype, which was used to validate the design.

The aim of this investigation is to describe the Mexican industries actual environment, the electricity billing system and the design and developing process of a functional IoT prototype capable to measure and monitor energy consumptions offering a solution to the lack of energy consumption measurement tool using advanced technologies applied on automation and monitoring systems.

This research work seeks to generate knowledge for the production of Mexican equipment and devices. The current market is full of foreign solutions and there is not a single manufacturer of Mexican equipment 100%. Within this, an inverter for interconnection was selected as this is the system that will be most adapted to future renewable energy applications.

In this thesis, a comprehensive methodology for optimizing the array spacing is proposed. It is based on annual shading energy calculations and incorporates a PV energy yield model together with an economic model focused on investment costs. The method is applied to the climatic conditions in Aguascalientes, Mexico, as a case study. A sensitivity analysis allowed the impact of the technical and economic parameters involved on the optimum inter row distance to be quantified.