A low voltage harvesting in photovoltaic generation systems using negative embedded Z-source inverter

Abstract

Commercial two-stage grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverters suffer from a narrow band maximum power point (MPP) voltage operation. If the voltage falls outside this narrow band, the inverter switches its operation from MPP to power limitation mode. At the same time, these inverters need high start-up voltages to turn them ON again. The evolutionary algorithms are widely used to track the global MPP at wide input (PV) voltage range. However, the global MPP at low PV voltages cannot be boosted to grid voltage level due to the limited duty ratio of conventional DC-DC converters that restricts the inverter MPP voltage range. This paper summarizes the potential challenges of narrow range MPP voltage solar inverters under partial shading scenarios. Also, demonstrates a proposed single-stage negative embedded Z-source single-stage inverter (NEZSI) to extend the MPP voltage range. The proposed topology wakes up the inverter at lower threshold voltages that enables it to extract energy from low PV string voltages. In addition, the proposed inverter tracks the MPP at a faster rate with low input current ripple, inrush current, and device stresses. Further in this paper, qualitative and quantitative comparisons between state-of-the-art topologies are provided to highlight the superiority of the proposed inverter. Simulation and experimental validation of the proposed inverter are demonstrated with traditional perturb and observe (P&O) and variable step P&O algorithms. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.