Over the last decade, energy demand from the power grid has increased significantly due to the increasing number of users and the emergence of high‐power industries. This has led to a significant increase in global emissions with conventional energy generation. Therefore, the penetration of renewable energy resources into the power grid has increased significantly. Photovoltaic systems have become the most popular resources as their protentional is enormous, thus, the worldwide installed PV capacity has increased to more than 635 gigawatts (GW), covering approximately 2% of the global electricity demand. Power electronics are an essential part of photovoltaic generation; the drive for efficient power electronic converters is gaining more andmore momentum. Presently, multilevel inverters (MLI) have become more attractive to researchers compared to two‐level inverters due to their abilities to provide lower electromagnetic interference, higher efficiency, and larger DC link voltages. This paper reviews multilevel inverters based on their classifications, development, and challenges with practical recommendations in utilizing them in renewable energy systems. Moreover, PV systems with various maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods have been extensively considered in this paper as well. The importance and thedevelopment of a modified multilevel inverter are also highlighted in this review. In general, this paper focuses on utilizing multilevel inverters for PV systems to motivate and guide society to focus on inventing an efficient and economical multilevel inverter that has the combined capabilities of these converters reported in the literature.

With the rapid development of modern energy applications such as renewable energy, PV systems, electric vehicles, and smart grids, DC-DC converters have become the key component to meet strict industrial demands. More advanced converters are effective in minimizing switching losses and providing an efficient energy conversion; nonetheless, the main challenge is to provide a single converter that has all the required features to deliver efficient energy for different types of modern energy systems and energy storage system integrations. This paper reviews multilevel, bidirectional, and resonant converters with respect to their constructions, classifications, merits, demerits, combined topologies, applications, and challenges; practical recommendations were also made to deliver clear ideas of the recent challenges and limited capabilities of these three converters to guide society on improving and providing a new, efficient, and economic converter that meets the strict demands of modern energy system integrations. The needs of other industrial applications, as well as the number of used elements for size and weight reduction, were also considered to achieve a power circuit that can effectively address the identified limitations. In brief, integrated bidirectional resonant DC-DC converters and multilevel inverters are expected to be well suited and highly demanded in various applications in the near future. Due to their highlighted merits, more studies are necessary for achieving a perfect level of reducing losses and components.

Studies on resonant power converters (RPCs) have received much attention due to the rapid growth of their potential in modern power and renewable energy applications such as photovoltaic, electric vehicles, wind, and fuel cells. Consequently, a significant number of studies focusing on RPC topologies for renewable energy applications is available. Generally, these studies have addressed several aspects, such as the development of their soft switching feature, smooth waveforms, high power density, and high efficiency. With this in mind, the present paper aims to review the development of the RPCs, challenges in their development, and comparison between common topologies as highlighted in literature. In addition, the use of RPCs in various applications of renewable energy is highlighted, focusing on some of the recently utilized topologies based on their constructions and achievements. There are still several issues and challenges in research that need to be considered for future improvement of the RPC performance in renewable energy applications. The improvement may require modifications on the circuit design or control strategies.

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