uorescent tubes, electronic ballast offer better performance, lower energy consumption, and less wear and tear than more traditional magnetic ballasts. Lighting technology is changing rapidly, and power electronics is the primary enabler of this change. Modern electronic ballasts operate at frequencies of a few tens of kilohertz to eliminate flicker and acoustic noise associated with discharge lighting. Small sizes and fast operation allow advanced lamps to be used in applications from cameras to cars.Power Electronics in Alternative EnergyWind, water, and sunlight are the keys to a new generation of power sources. Fuel cells and microturbines offer efficiency ways to convert fuels to electricity. The raw power from these sources must be conditioned before it can be used by standard electrical loads. This power conditioning function is where power electronics plays an important role. Solar power is generally used to convert the sun's energy into either of two more readily useable forms: hot liquid such as in a solar water heating plant or solar thermal power plant, or directly into electric current such as generated by photovoltaic cells. Hot liquid systems can be used to generate steam to drive turbines and generators. The largest demonstration systems even include thermal energy storage so power can be produced continuously. Photovoltaic systems can use static power inverters to convert their initial low-voltage dc power into ac power suitable to run a given load or to feed into the power grid. The electrical current available from photovoltaic systems is supplied at very low voltages that depend on a number of factors including the angle of the sunlight and level of cloud cover. This variation of output voltage and output power means that we need some way of regulating controlling the output of the photovoltaic system; this task is often accomplished using adjustable boost converters that can keep the output voltage of ...
