Investigation of single‐stage transformerless buck–boost microinverters

Abstract

The conventional microinverters with transformers and multiple-stage system increases the cost, weight and size, lowering the effectiveness and power density of PV system. It is therefore desirable to prevent using these methods for a microinverter. However, extra care must be taken to prevent component stress, excess switching and conduction losses, ground leakage currents and harmonics. Several transformerless buck–boost inverters have lately been suggested to address various issues. Due to the availability of a number of buck–boost inverter-topology for the solar PV system, it is often difficult to identify when to choose the appropriate topology. Therefore, in order to present a clear view of the advancement of transformerless buck–boost inverters for next-generation grid-integrated PV systems, this article seeks to explore multiple buck–boost topologies with an extensive analytical comparison. Computer simulations for the 70 W system have been conducted in PLECS software to strengthen the results and comparisons, as well as to provide more insight into the features of the distinct topologies for the building-integrated photovoltaic implementation. At the later part, voltage and current stress in each component, efficiency and total harmonic distortion of the system are provided with a general summary, as well as, a technology roadmap.