The design optimization of H5, H6, Neutral Point Clamped, Active-Neutral Point Clamped and Conergy-NPC transformerless Photovoltaic inverters is presented in this paper. The components reliability in terms of the corresponding malfunctions, affecting the Photovoltaic inverter maintenance cost during the operational lifetime period of the Photovoltaic installation, is also considered in the optimization process. According to the results of the proposed design method, different optimal values of the Photovoltaic inverter design variables are derived for each Photovoltaic inverter topology and installation site. The H5, H6, Neutral Point Clamped, Active-Neutral Point Clamped and Conergy-NPC Photovoltaic inverters designed using the proposed optimization process feature lower Levelized Cost Of generated Electricity and lifetime cost, longer Mean Time Between Failures and inject more Photovoltaic-generated energy into the electric grid than their non-optimized counterparts, thus maximizing the total economic benefit obtained during the operational time of the Photovoltaic system.

The transformerless DC/AC inverters are critical components in the rapidly growing market of grid-connected Photovoltaic (PV) applications. Also, the SiC-based power semiconductors are capable to operate reliably at high operating temperature and switches frequency levels. In this paper, a new design technique is presented for optimizing the switching frequency and structure of the LCL-type output filter in transformerless H5 and Conergy-NPC PV inverters, which employ SiC-type power devices. The design optimization results demonstrate that the optimized SiC-based PV inverters are more effective in terms of energy production than their non-optimized and Si-based counterparts. Reducing the market price of SiC-type power semiconductors enables to design optimized PV inverters with a lower cost of energy than that of PV inverters employing Si technology, thus maximizing the economic profitability of the PV system.

The transformerless DC/AC inverters are critical components in the rapidly growing market of grid-connected Photovoltaic (PV) applications. They are synthesized by combining available solutions in terms of the power-section topology, power-semiconductors manufacturing technology and structure of the output filter. Also, the SiC-based power semiconductors are capable to operate reliably at high operating temperature and switching frequency levels combined with a very high efficiency. In this paper, a new design technique is presented for optimizing the switching frequency and structure of the output filter (either LCL-or LLCL-type) in transformerless H5 and Conergy-NPC PV inverters, which employ SiC-type power devices. The design results demonstrate that the optimized SiC-based H5 and Conergy-NPC transformerless PV inverters are more effective in terms of energy production than their nonoptimized and Si-based counterparts. Also, by reducing the market price of SiC-type power semiconductors to the level of Si-based power devices, enables the development of optimized SiC-based PV inverters with a lower cost of energy than the corresponding PV inverters based on Si technology, thus maximizing the economic profitability of the PV system.

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