Abstract
The focus in this paper is on the two-stage photovoltaic (PV) microinverters using a buck-boost dc/dc front-end converter. Wide input voltage range of the front-end converter enables operation under shaded conditions but results in mediocre performance in the typical voltage range. These microinverters can be controlled with either fixed or variable dc-link voltage control methods. The latter improves the converter efficiency considerably in the range of the most probable maximum power point (MPP) locations. However, the buck-boost operation of the front-end converter results in noticeable variations of the efficiency across the input voltage range. As a result, conventional weighted efficiency metrics cannot be used to predict annual energy productions by the microinverters. This paper proposes a new methodology for the estimation of annual energy production based on annual profiles of the solar irradiance and ambient temperature. Using this methodology, quantification of the annual energy production is provided for two geographical locations.
Highlights
In the recent year, residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have been on the rise, resulting from strong governmental support either in the form of subsidies on installation or feed-in tariffs [1,2,3,4].This trend has been supported with the rapid cost reduction of PV modules and associated hardware [5].Deployment of PV systems relies on extensive use of power electronic converters as the critical system components [6]
This study proposes a methodology for annual energy production estimation for the aforementioned microinverters and provides a numerical study based on experimental data to quantify the effect on converter efficiency achieved when the fixed dc-link voltage control is replaced with the variable dc-link voltage control
This study considers the efficiency of the microinverter and leaves the MPPT efficiency out efficiency out for simplicity
Summary
Residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have been on the rise, resulting from strong governmental support either in the form of subsidies on installation or feed-in tariffs [1,2,3,4]. Another member of this class is PV power optimizers used for interfacing individual PV modules in series PV string and, they bridge the gap between string inverters and microinverters They impose limitations on system design due to voltage matching issues. PV power optimizers could be advantageous in larger residential PV systems due to the possibility of selective deployment They can ensure proper maximum energy harvesting by a PV string inverter only for a limited number of PV string configurations containing a number of modules within a certain range [12]. PV microinverters can be regarded as a universal tool for deployment of small residential PV systems, which provides superior scalability and reliability [7] They are based on either single- or two-stage energy conversion. Single-stage microinverters cannot withstand opaque or significant partial shading and must be replaced with two-stage solutions in climatic conditions where shading causes energy yield loss
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