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Renewable energies are a central element in the search for energy sustainability, so they are 7 becoming a substantial component of the energy scenario of every country, both as systems 8 connected to the grid or in stand-alone applications. Feasibility of these renewable energy 9 systems could be necessary not only in their application in isolated areas, but also in systems connected to the grid, in this last case when their contribution reaches a substantial fraction of the total electricity demand. To overcome this reliability problem, hybrid renewable systems could become essential and activities to optimize their design should be addressed, both in the simulation and in the experimental areas. In this paper, a laboratory to simulate and verify the reliability of hybrid renewable systems is presented and its application to the feasibility analysis of multicomponent systems including photovoltaic panels, wind generator and biomass gasification plant, plus energy storage in a battery bank, are described.

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Multilevel converters are being considered for an increasing number of applications due to their high power capability, associated with lower output harmonics and lower commutation losses. Their main disadvantage is their complexity which requires both a great number of power devices an a rather complex control circutry. In this work a new inverter topology using an auxiliary switch is presented, reducing the number of power devices required to implement a multilevel output. The topology is tested in the design of a 5 levels H bridge simplified inverter; circuit operation is presented, simulated in SPICE and validated with experimental tests performed on a laboratory prototype. Additionally, the dedicated modulator circuit required for multilevel inverter operation is implemented using a FPGA circuit, reducing overall system cost and complexity.