Design and implementation of a modular interactive inverter system as teaching project

During the international IEEE student competition “Future Energy Challenge 2005” student teams built utility interactive inverter systems for photovoltaic applications. This paper gives an overview of the Aachen-Cologne team's activities during this competition from the supervisors' point of view. Moreover, the participating students present the overall inverter developed and constructed within the project. After a brief introduction, it is shown how the student project has been integrated into the curriculum of both universities. In addition, the project organization and the project progress are presented including experimental results. The experience and the knowledge gathered by the participating students in various disciplines are presented in the sections “student report of experiences” and “educational impact”.