A Study on High Frequency Smart Inverter Incorporating Supercapacitor and Solar MPPT

Abstract

Keeping compactness and lightweight as the important considerations, an inverter design is proposed. The inverter presented here is of the type of high frequency with two stages, with sine wave output, and is compatible with all the types of battery chemistry available in the market with integrated Maximum Power Point Tracking for solar battery charging. This inverter uses a ferrite core transformer instead of traditional iron core transformers. Ferrite core transformers operate at high frequency in the order of kilohertz, they are also compact, have less weight and have greater efficiency, while iron core transformers operate in the order of hertz, are bulky and less efficient. Iron core transformers also produce humming noise. Apart from the ferrite core transformer, super-capacitors have been incorporated as it reduces the stress on the battery and thus increases the lifespan of the battery. It also provides the surge or extra power demand at the start of the high power loads. A Maximum Power Point Tracking feature has also been added to the inverter which helps us to extract maximum power from the PV Cells and also helps to protect the battery from overcharging.