A Novel Transformerless Single-Stage Grid-Connected Solar Inverter

Abstract

A novel tranformerless single-stage grid-connected solar inverter with a combination of a bidirectional dc/dc boost converter followed by a flyback inductor inverter is proposed. The inverter shares a common ground with the photovoltaic (PV) panel and the grid, which realizes a zero leakage current and it is the most desired feature in transformerless inverters. Further, the proposed inverter provides the boost voltage operation, hence it does not require a second stage which decreases the system cost and increases the system reliability. The other advantage of the proposed inverter is that it provides both the symmetrical positive voltage gain and negative voltage gain, which allows to use simple sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation technique for realizing the ac sinusoidal output voltage. The proposed inverter steady-state operation and the design equations are presented in detail. The converter dynamic model is developed using state-space averaging approach, and a proportional resonant current controller is designed for inverter closed-loop operation with the grid. The presented analysis and the design are verified with both the simulation and experimental results.