Giovanni Spagnuolo is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Salerno. Since January 2016 he is Fellow of the IEEE “For contributions to control of photovoltaic systems”. In 2015 he was included in the list of the Most Influential Minds published by Thomson Reuters. Since 2011 he has been serving as Member of the Steering Committee and Editor of the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics. He is Associate Editor of the IEEE Open Journal of the Industrial Electronics Society and of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine. Since 2022 he is Coordinator of the Italian PhD course “Photovoltaics”. He is co-author of 200 papers published in international journals and presented in conferences, most of them focused on power electronics and photovoltaic systems modeling and control. He is also the co-author of five international patents and of two books, edited by CRC Press and by Wiley IEEE, both focused on photovoltaic systems.
Lecture – Enabling technologies for electrification: switching converters
Giovanni will give an overview of the role of switching converters in smart renewable energy systems. Principles of switching operation will also be introduced, by referring to the main circuit topologies used for DC-DC, DC-AC and AC-DC conversions. Examples of control actions, performed through converters, will be also discussed, by referring to photovoltaic systems power maximization, battery management and wind generators control. Technical data referring to commercial power electronic interfaces will be finally analyzed and discussed, in view of a smart grid design.