A Systematic Review on the Application of Power Eelectronics in Renewable Energy Systems using SWOT Analysis

Abstract

Background: The frequency of energy crises due to shortage of fuel or rise in fuel prices has increased in the past decade. This may be due to increasing energy demand, the financially crippled state of the distribution companies, high prices of fuel, shortage of fuel, tension between the countries, etc. Apart from this, climate change, global warming, and rising environmental concerns have necessitated the need to search for more sustainable alternative sources of electricity. It has created a lot of interest in Renewable Energy Sources (RES), which includes solar, wind and hydropower. Even governments all around the world are introducing policies to support the adoption of RES for the generation of electricity and have set the target to achieve the Net-Zero emission level by decarbonizing the power sector. Methods: This paper provides an overview of all the prominent renewable energy technologies, namely solar power plants, wind energy plants, biomass and hydropower, using a systematic review procedure. In addition to this, the importance of Power Electronic Technologies (PET) in the integration of RES in today’s power system has also been presented. Further, a SWOT analysis framework has also been utilized to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the application of PET in renewable energy systems. Result: The results from the analysis showcases that the implement of PET offers significant strength for the implementation of RES in the power system by providing increased system efficiency, and improved power quality. However, the technologies also face some of the weakness of limited scalability, regulatory concerns, high initial cost etc. Further, the different opportunities for a widespread adoption of PET have been discussed in this paper. Finally, all the threats concerning the implementation of the PET in the RES in the modern power system have also been highlighted. Conclusion: The purpose of this research work is to classify recent research techniques on renewable energy sources that were published between the years of 2010 to 2022 through a systematic and statistical review framework to showcase the need for power electronic technologies for the implementation of RES.