Photovoltaic inverter with high efficiency over a wide operation area - a practical approach

Preckwinkel, Heiko; Krishna, D. Vamsi; Fröhleke, N.; Böcker, Joachim

doi:10.1109/iecon.2011.6119432

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…As described by (4) and Table I, the output voltage of the inverter is the difference between the output voltages of the 3-level and 2-level inverter. The two switching states of the 2-level inverter either add v dc /2 to or subtract v dc /2 from the 3-level output voltage.…”

Section: Modulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also the impact of different DC link voltages, power factors, modulation and control schemes on losses and system behavior can be analyzed. Modeling of losses is explained in detail in [4].…”

Section: Lossesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The straightforward way to facilitate this is to use 1700 V IGBTs instead. But since switching losses increase disproportionately with the voltage rating of the semiconductors [3], either efficiency is decreased [4] or switching frequency has to be lowered, resulting in increased size and cost of passive filter components. For such high-voltage applications, multi-level topologies outperform most other topologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A novel low cost solar central inverters topology with 99.2% efficiency

Preckwinkel¹,

Bunte²,

Böcker

et al. 2013

2013 15th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE)

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For solar central inverters, high efficiency is still a very important issue. It increases the yield, but even more important, it reduces the thermal stress of all components, minimizes the cooling effort or allows higher ambient temperatures. The main challenge is not only to reach high peak efficiency in one operation point but more to provide a good performance over the whole voltage and power range. In this contribution, a new topology for central inverters connected to the medium-voltage grid is presented, analyzed and practically examined. Measurements on a 100 kW prototype prove this concept by an excellent high and flat efficiency graph peaking at 99.2 %. This result is obtained with conventional silicon semiconductors.

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Section: Modulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lossesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A novel low cost solar central inverters topology with 99.2% efficiency

Preckwinkel¹,

Bunte²,

Böcker

et al. 2013

2013 15th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE)

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Achieving a high reliability of PV inverters is considered as an immediate priority for the PV industry in order to match the lifetime of PV modules [15]. According to [16], both cost and reliability should be taken into account in order to design PV power processing systems, but frequently the impact of reliability is not explicitly incorporated in the design process of PV inverters (e.g., such as in [17] and [18]). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Optimization of Transformerless Grid-Connected PV Inverters Including Reliability

Koutroulis

Blaabjerg

2013

IEEE Trans. Power Electron.

194

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This paper presents a new methodology for optimal design of transformerless photovoltaic (PV) inverters targeting a cost-effective deployment of grid-connected PV systems. The optimal switching frequency as well as the optimal values and types of the PV inverter components is calculated such that the PV inverter LCOE generated during the PV system lifetime period is minimized. The LCOE is also calculated considering the failure rates of the components, which affect the reliability performance and lifetime maintenance cost of the PV inverter. A design example is presented, demonstrating that compared to the nonoptimized PV inverter structures, the PV inverters designed using the proposed optimization methodology exhibit lower total manufacturing and lifetime maintenance cost and inject more energy into the electricgrid and by that minimizing LCOE.Index Terms-DC-AC power conversion, failure analysis, optimization methods, photovoltaic (PV) power systems, reliability.

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“…With respect to comprehensive cost analysis of modern switched-mode power converters including all relevant components (such as semiconductors, heatsinks and passives), some of the few examples which can be found in literature are [8], [14], [15], [16], where a mix of discrete cost data as well as continuous cost models are employed for multi-objective converter optimizations. Alas, all contributions miss to provide detailed information on the cost models and restrict to the presentation of the final, normalized converter cost.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Component cost models for multi-objective optimizations of switched-mode power converters

Burkart

Kolar

2013

2013 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition

105

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Besides product differentiation, cost is a key parameter for market success and sustainable competitive advantage of industrial companies. Academic research in the field of power electronics, however, is often confined to the search for technical innovations or optimizations with focus on pure physical performance indices while the cost dimension is neglected. An explanation for the lack of such cost considerations is the generally poor availability of cost data in academia. This paper discusses the necessity of an increased awareness and sensitivity towards costs and the related opportunities for academic research. Furthermore, cost models for the power semiconductors, the passive components, the cooling systems and the printed circuit boards of switched-mode power converters with an approximate rated power between 5 and 50 kW are derived. Based on manufacturer prices for large ordering quantities, numerical values for the cost model parameters are proposed. An example of a multiobjective comparison of different power converter topologies for photovoltaic applications regarding efficiency, volume and total semiconductor chip area is extended by the cost dimension to demonstrate the benefits of employing the developed cost models.

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Photovoltaic inverter with high efficiency over a wide operation area - a practical approach

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

A novel low cost solar central inverters topology with 99.2% efficiency

A novel low cost solar central inverters topology with 99.2% efficiency

Design Optimization of Transformerless Grid-Connected PV Inverters Including Reliability

Component cost models for multi-objective optimizations of switched-mode power converters

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