Design of a Three Phase Z-Source Inverter for Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

Due to the danger of extinction of fossil energy resources and their harmful effects on the environment, interest in renewable energy sources has increased today. Furthermore, the photovoltaic energy, which is among renewable energy sources, has started to gain importance day by day. Especially, grid-connected Photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems have begun to be installed and used widely. In the grid-connected power generation systems, variable environmental conditions cause the DC voltage obtained from the PV systems to vary continuously. In the applications where traditional inverters are used, additional DC/DC converters are required to obtain an output at the desired frequency and amplitude. On the other hand, Z-source inverters which are a new concept can perform this raising and lowering process without the need for any intermediate circuit elements, thanks to the impedance network in their structures. For this reason, in this paper, Z-source inverter is designed for the PV systems. Z-source inverter modeling with impedance network is realized by using a simple boost switching method, and the modulation index and duty cycle parameters are adjusted to increase the DC voltage applied to its input. It is observed from the simulation results that using of the Z-source inverter is proper and efficient in the PV power generation systems.