Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Martina Calais
Ted Spoone?
Johanna Myrzik2
Vassilios G. Agelidis4
I. INTRODUCTION
The continuing decrease of the cost of the PVs, the advancement of power electronic and semiconductor technology
and favourable incentives in a number of industrial countries
in general had a profound impact on the commercial acceptance of grid connected PV systems in the recent years. A core
technology associated with these systems remains the inverter,
which has evolved to quite mature technology offering a number of advantages to customers that were not possible many
years ago. The technology has changed from line commutated
inverters to switch mode ones mainly due to the availability of
high frequency fully-controlled switching devices.
Most inverters on the market in the mid 1990s were self
or line commutated central inverters, with DC power ratings
above 1 kW, suitable for PV system configurations with several strings in parallel as shown in Fig. 1. During the 1000
Roofs Program, a subsidy program of the German Federal and
State Governments (which was accompanied by an extensive
measurement and analysis program [1,2]) the disadvantagesof
central inverters became apparent. These include complete loss
of generation during inverter outages and losses due to the mismatch of strings. String inverters, which are designed for a
Rated ~ t c u r r e m
w)
Fig. 1. PV invertem availablein 1994 and 2002 shown versus DC voltage and
DC current ratings.
0-7803-7262-X/02/$10.00
Q 2002 LEB.
1995
A. Central inverters
Based on drive system technology the first PV inverters at
the end of the 1980s were line commutated inverters (see
Fig. 2(b)) with power ratings of several kilo watts. Although
these topologies are robust, highly efficient and cheap, their
major drawbacks are a power factor between 0.6 and 0.7 [14],
Inverting element +
Current weve shaping
Inverting element +
Current m e shaping
Full Bridge
Inverter
yv<850 v
Utility
Grid
Full Bridge
inverter
%V< 400 v
Thyristor
Bridge
Line Frequency
Transformer
Utilii
Grid
DC Filter
Voltage
adjustment
Utility
Grid
(b)
1996
-__
3
aoo
I
:i/
i l
700
W
O
&,
0
0
3
4
6
Rated PV array power (kW)
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(-0
element
+vottageadjustment
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Line frequency
brldge
inverter
Currmt m e 8ha~ina
. _
Uiilik
1997
on the size of the string the input voltage ranges between 125
to 750 V. The inverter has a maximum power rating of 5 kW.
Fig. 1 summarises the DC current and DC voltage ratings of
the discussed inverter concepts available in 1994 and 2002 and
demonstrates the trend towards the string inverter concept.
E. New trends
One of the common drawbacks of a single-phase inverter is
the need for large electrolyte capacitors at the input of the inverter. Electrolyte capacitors significantly affect the efficiency,
cost and lifetime of the inverter and some manufacturers
have started to develop small three-phase inverters in order to
reduce the electrolyte capacitor size.
For bigger PV plant applications the new team concept
provides a better utilisation of the inverters at low load. In
this concept the string technology will be combined with
the master - slave concept. At low solar irradiation all
strings are connected in parallel to one inverter while the
other inverters are disconnected. At increasing irradiation the
PV array is divided into sub-arrays which are connected to
different independently operating string inverters. An increase
of the system efficiency of 2% is expected. The concept
is particularly interesting for countries with high energy
conversion during part load operation.
E Eficiencies
Fig. 8 shows the average maximum efficiencies of the
different topologies over the years 1994-2002. Highest
efficiencies around 96% are achievable with line commutated
and transformerless inverter topologies. Improved switching
devices and also the trend towards the use of higher DC input
voltages have lead to significant efficiency improvements over
the last 8 years. However, recent slight efficiency drops are
noticeable with some topology types and suggest that PV
inverter efficiencies may decrease in order to reduce cost. Fig.
9 gives a more detailed overview on the maximum efficiencies
for the different PV inverters types.
G. Prices
Prices for single-phase PV inverters have significantly
decreased during the last 8 years and the trend is expected to
A Line commutatedmansfomorloss
: Self rommutltsdb i l h line frequency imansfomsr
+Module imograred
- Self commutatedimansbmerlesa
' Self commu1ated
high hequency!"brmer
+Module imtegmted
@Selfcommutatedtmskrmerlesr [step down)
1SelIcammulatedrmnrlarmerless [baest)
A Line cdmmumed transformerless
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I
86%
4 J 1 A J
J L
%
A
Fa
,:
P
90%
+
88%
000
I
1
Fig. 10. Price per watt (DC) of single-phase PV inverters versus DC power
rating (2002, [13]).
97
Market S U N C Y C D ~ ~Systems
I ~ Z C 2002
Inverter Topologl Shares
(20.6 Mw of systems sold since 1985)
994
r"
9s
s2
<,
>.
1993
1394
1995
1996
1997
1938
1399
2000
0.3%
'<
1
Self c m "
tra"9f"rlers
(boost)
j
91
Self=-"d*ted
2001
2002
2003
Ybar
1998
Ratsd DC PDM~IkW)
111. INTERNATIONAL
STANDARDS
International standards for single phase grid connected PV
inverter systems are still very much at an embryonic stage.
PV inverter technology has changed rapidly and many inverter
topologies have been developed to explore the most effective
and efficient system configuration and the most cost effective
design. So the inverter itself has in many cases dictated the system configurationand also determined important issues such as
whether the array is earthed or non earthed. All this inverter development has taken place at a time when very few standards
have existed, so designers have had little restriction in their design imagination. Standards are generally developed after the
technology. In the PV inverter area it has been particularly difficult because the technology has been changing rapidly. The
topologies have been developing and the PV voltage has been
rising rapidly. There is now an urgent need for a range of standards for PV grid connect systems and these will have important consequences for inverter design. The most important issues for standards in this area may be categorized as:
AC issues related to the inverter output, grid interface, protection and safety and possible high AC fault currents on the
PV array supplied from the grid.
DC issues related to array safety and protection, and
common mode voltages impressed on the PV array due to
the topology and earthing of the inverter.
The AC issues are generally covered by grid interface style
standards. The DC issues will be covered by array standards
and general wiring standards. The last group of issues particularly relate to transformerless topologies. These issues need to
be covered by a combination of inverter and array standards.
High common mode voltages impressed on PV arrays frequently exist withtransformerless inverter topologies where:
the PV array does not have a center tapped earth connection or
where the centre point of the DC filter capacitorsof the inverter
input is not earthed. These inverter topologies may cause high
common mode voltages to be impressed on the array. This is a
potential safety issue because capacitive coupling to a person
in contact with the insulated surface of the PV array may result
in significant current flowing through the body. The effect
is more severe when the common mode voltages are at the
1999
V. REFERENCES
.@ ~ u i tstnng
i
inverters
[3]
Central self commutated inverters
with transformer (> 1 kW)
1995
[4]
2000
Fig. 12. PV inverter development trends (darker and larger &as indicate
increasing importance).
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[lo]
[l 11
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
IV. CONCLUSIONS
[16]
2000
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[211
[221