A Single-Stage Microinverter Without Using Eletrolytic Capacitors

    Authors

    H. B. Hu; S. Harb; N. H. Kutkut; Z. J. Shen;I. Batarseh

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    IEEE Trans. Power Electron.

    Keywords

    Flyback; microinverter; photovoltaic; power decoupling; PHOTOVOLTAIC APPLICATIONS; INVERTER; CONVERTER; INTERFACE; INPUT; Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

    Abstract

    This paper presents a new microinverter topology that is intended for single-phase grid-connected PV systems. The proposed microinverter topology is based on a flyback converter, where an extra switch is added to separate the decoupling capacitor from the PV Module, which allows for a high voltage and voltage ripples across its terminals. This results in reducing the power decoupling required capacitance. In this manner, long lifetime low power density film capacitors can be used instead of lifetime limited high power density electrolytic capacitors, resulting in remarkable increase of microinverter's lifespan. The main advantages of the proposed topology are summarized as: 1) eliminating the double-frequency power ripple using a small film capacitor; 2) using long lifetime film capacitors, which will improve the reliability of the inverter; and 3) requiring no additional circuitry to manage the transformer leakage energy. A 100-W microinverter prototype was built to verify the proposed topology. Experimental results show that the proposed topology and its control scheme can realize the power decoupling, while maintaining very good conversion efficiency numbers.

    Journal Title

    Ieee Transactions on Power Electronics

    Volume

    28

    Issue/Number

    6

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    2677

    Last Page

    2687

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000314701200008

    ISSN

    0885-8993

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