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7, JULY 2014
Abstract—This paper proposes a new solar power generation efficiency of the power conversion interface is important to in-
system, which is composed of a dc/dc power converter and a new sure that there is no waste of the energy generated by the solar
seven-level inverter. The dc/dc power converter integrates a dc–dc cell array. The active devices and passive devices in the inverter
boost converter and a transformer to convert the output voltage of
the solar cell array into two independent voltage sources with mul- produce a power loss. The power losses due to active devices
tiple relationships. This new seven-level inverter is configured using include both conduction losses and switching losses [5]. Con-
a capacitor selection circuit and a full-bridge power converter, con- duction loss results from the use of active devices, while the
nected in cascade. The capacitor selection circuit converts the two switching loss is proportional to the voltage and the current
output voltage sources of dc–dc power converter into a three-level changes for each switching and switching frequency. A filter in-
dc voltage, and the full-bridge power converter further converts
this three-level dc voltage into a seven-level ac voltage. In this way, ductor is used to process the switching harmonics of an inverter,
the proposed solar power generation system generates a sinusoidal so the power loss is proportional to the amount of switching
output current that is in phase with the utility voltage and is fed into harmonics.
the utility. The salient features of the proposed seven-level inverter The voltage change in each switching operation for a multi-
are that only six power electronic switches are used, and only one level inverter is reduced in order to improve its power conver-
power electronic switch is switched at high frequency at any time.
A prototype is developed and tested to verify the performance of sion efficiency [6]–[15] and the switching stress of the active
this proposed solar power generation system. devices. The amount of switching harmonics is also attenuated,
so the power loss caused by the filter inductor is also reduced.
Index Terms—Grid-connected, multilevel inverter, pulse-width
modulated (PWM) inverter. Therefore, multilevel inverter technology has been the subject
of much research over the past few years. In theory, multilevel
inverters should be designed with higher voltage levels in order
I. INTRODUCTION to improve the conversion efficiency and to reduce harmonic
content and electromagnetic interference (EMI).
HE extensive use of fossil fuels has resulted in the global
T problem of greenhouse emissions. Moreover, as the sup-
plies of fossil fuels are depleted in the future, they will become
Conventional multilevel inverter topologies include the diode-
clamped [6]–[10], the flying-capacitor [11]–[13], and the cas-
cade H-bridge [14]–[18] types. Diode-clamped and flying-
increasingly expensive. Thus, solar energy is becoming more
capacitor multilevel inverters use capacitors to develop sev-
important since it produces less pollution and the cost of fossil
eral voltage levels. But it is difficult to regulate the voltage of
fuel energy is rising, while the cost of solar arrays is decreas-
these capacitors. Since it is difficult to create an asymmetric
ing. In particular, small-capacity distributed power generation
voltage technology in both the diode-clamped and the flying-
systems using solar energy may be widely used in residential
capacitor topologies, the power circuit is complicated by the
applications in the near future [1], [2].
increase in the voltage levels that is necessary for a multilevel
The power conversion interface is important to grid-
inverter. For a single-phase seven-level inverter, 12 power elec-
connected solar power generation systems because it converts
tronic switches are required in both the diode-clamped and the
the dc power generated by a solar cell array into ac power and
flying-capacitor topologies. Asymmetric voltage technology is
feeds this ac power into the utility grid. An inverter is necessary
used in the cascade H-bridge multilevel inverter to allow more
in the power conversion interface to convert the dc power to ac
levels of output voltage [17], so the cascade H-bridge multilevel
power [2]–[4]. Since the output voltage of a solar cell array is
inverter is suitable for applications with increased voltage lev-
low, a dc–dc power converter is used in a small-capacity solar
els. Two H-bridge inverters with a dc bus voltage of multiple
power generation system to boost the output voltage, so it can
relationships can be connected in cascade to produce a single-
match the dc bus voltage of the inverter. The power conversion
phase seven-level inverter and eight power electronic switches
are used. More recently, various novel topologies for seven-
level inverters have been proposed. For example, a single-phase
Manuscript received March 28, 2013; revised June 14, 2013 and August 11, seven-level grid-connected inverter has been developed for a
2013; accepted August 19, 2013. Date of current version February 18, 2014. photovoltaic system [18]. This seven-level grid-connected in-
Recommended for publication by Associate Editor K. Ngo.
The authors are with the Department of Microelectronic Engineering, verter contains six power electronic switches. However, three
National Kaohsiung Marine University, Kaohsiung 81157, Taiwan (e-mail: dc capacitors are used to construct the three voltage levels,
jinnwu@mail.nkmut.edu.tw; peterchou.921@gmail.com). which results in that balancing the voltages of the capacitors
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. is more complex. In [19], a seven-level inverter topology, con-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2013.2279880 figured by a level generation part and a polarity generation
0885-8993 © 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
Authorized licensed use limited
Seeto: The Islamia University of Bahawalpur.
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WU AND CHOU: SOLAR POWER GENERATION SYSTEM WITH A SEVEN-LEVEL INVERTER 3455
part, is proposed. There, only power electronic switches of the tion circuit determine the discharge of the two capacitors while
level generation part switch in high frequency, but ten power the two capacitors are being discharged individually or in se-
electronic switches and three dc capacitors are used. In [20], a ries. Because of the multiple relationships between the voltages
modular multilevel inverter with a new modulation method is of the dc capacitors, the capacitor selection circuit outputs a
applied to the photovoltaic grid-connected generator. The mod- three-level dc voltage. The full-bridge power converter further
ular multilevel inverter is similar to the cascade H-bridge type. converts this three-level dc voltage to a seven-level ac voltage
For this, a new modulation method is proposed to achieve dy- that is synchronized with the utility voltage. In this way, the
namic capacitor voltage balance. In [21], a multilevel dc-link proposed solar power generation system generates a sinusoidal
inverter is presented to overcome the problem of partial shading output current that is in phase with the utility voltage and is fed
of individual photovoltaic sources that are connected in series. into the utility, which produces a unity power factor. As can
The dc bus of a full-bridge inverter is configured by several be seen, this new seven-level inverter contains only six power
individual dc blocks, where each dc block is composed of a electronic switches, so the power circuit is simplified.
solar cell, a power electronic switch, and a diode. Controlling
the power electronics of the dc blocks will result in a multilevel III. DC–DC POWER CONVERTER
dc-link voltage to supply a full-bridge inverter and to simulta-
neously overcome the problems of partial shading of individual As seen in Fig. 1, the DC–DC power converter incorporates a
photovoltaic sources. boost converter and a current-fed forward converter. The boost
This paper proposes a new solar power generation system. converter is composed of an inductor LD , a power electronic
The proposed solar power generation system is composed of switch SD 1 , and a diode, DD 3 . The boost converter charges
a dc/dc power converter and a seven-level inverter. The seven- capacitor C2 of the seven-level inverter. The current-fed forward
level inverter is configured using a capacitor selection circuit converter is composed of an inductor LD , power electronic
and a full-bridge power converter, connected in cascade. The switches SD 1 and SD 2 , a transformer, and diodes DD 1 and
seven-level inverter contains only six power electronic switches, DD 2 . The current-fed forward converter charges capacitor C1
which simplifies the circuit configuration. Since only one power of the seven-level inverter. The inductor LD and the power
electronic switch is switched at high frequency at any time to electronic switch SD 1 of the current-fed forward converter are
generate the seven-level output voltage, the switching power loss also used in the boost converter.
is reduced, and the power efficiency is improved. The inductance Fig. 2(a) shows the operating circuit of the dc–dc power con-
of the filter inductor is also reduced because there is a seven- verter when SD 1 is turned ON. The solar cell array supplies
level output voltage. In this study, a prototype is developed and energy to the inductor LD . When SD 1 is turned OFF and SD 2
tested to verify the performance of the proposed solar power is turned ON, its operating circuit is shown in Fig. 2(b). Ac-
generation system. cordingly, capacitor C1 is connected to capacitor C2 in parallel
through the transformer, so the energy of inductor LD and the
II. CIRCUIT CONFIGURATION solar cell array charge capacitor C2 through DD 3 and charge
capacitor C1 through the transformer and DD 1 during the off-
Fig. 1 shows the configuration of the proposed solar power state of SD 1 . Since capacitors C1 and C2 are charged in parallel
generation system. The proposed solar power generation system by using the transformer, the voltage ratio of capacitors C1 and
is composed of a solar cell array, a dc–dc power converter, and C2 is the same as the turn ratio (2:1) of the transformer. There-
a new seven-level inverter. The solar cell array is connected to fore, the voltages of C1 and C2 have multiple relationships. The
the dc–dc power converter, and the dc–dc power converter is a boost converter is operated in the continuous conduction mode
boost converter that incorporates a transformer with a turn ratio (CCM). The voltage of C2 can be represented as
of 2:1. The dc–dc power converter converts the output power of
the solar cell array into two independent voltage sources with 1
multiple relationships, which are supplied to the seven-level in- Vc2 = Vs (1)
1−D
verter. This new seven-level inverter is composed of a capacitor
selection circuit and a full-bridge power converter, connected where VS is the output voltage of solar cell array and D is
in a cascade. The power electronic switches of capacitor selec- the duty ratio of SD 1 . The voltage of capacitor C1 can be
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3456 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014
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WU AND CHOU: SOLAR POWER GENERATION SYSTEM WITH A SEVEN-LEVEL INVERTER 3457
d = vm /Vtri (3) Fig. 5. Model of the seven-level inverter under different range of utility volt-
age, (a) in the range of smaller than V d c /3, (b) in the range of (V d c /3, 2V d c /3),
where vm and Vtri are the modulation signal and the amplitude (c) in the range of higher than 2V d c /3.
of carrier signal in the PWM circuit, respectively. The output
voltage of the seven-level inverter can be written as Fig. 5(b) shows the simplified model for the seven-level in-
verter when the utility voltage is within this voltage range. The
vo = d · Vdc /3 = kpwm vm (4)
closed-loop transfer function can be derived as
where kpwm is the gain of inverter, which can be written as kpwm Gc/Lf 1/Lf
Io = I∗ − (Vu −Vdc /3).
kpwm = Vdc /3Vtri . (5) s+ki kpwm Gc /Lf o s + ki kpwm Gc /Lf
(8)
Fig. 5(a) shows the simplified model for the seven-level in- The seven-level inverter is switched between modes 3 and 2
verter when the utility voltage is smaller than Vdc /3. The closed- in order to output a voltage of Vdc or 2Vdc /3, when the utility
loop transfer function can be derived as voltage is in the range (2Vdc /3, Vdc ). Within this voltage range,
SS 1 is switched in PWM and SS 2 remains in the ON state to
kpwm Gc /Lf 1/Lf
Io = Io∗ − Vu (6) avoid switching of SS 2 . The duty ratio of SS 1 is the same as
s + ki kpwm Gc /Lf s + ki kpwm Gc /Lf (3). However, the output voltage of seven-level inverter can be
where Gc is the current controller and ki is the gain of the written as
current detector.
vo = d · Vdc /3 + 2Vdc /3 = kpwm vm + 2Vdc /3. (9)
The seven-level inverter is switched between modes 2 and 1,
in order to output a voltage of 2Vdc /3 or Vdc /3 when the utility Fig. 5(c) shows the simplified model for the seven-level in-
voltage is in the range (Vdc /3, 2Vdc /3). Within this voltage range, verter when the utility voltage is within this voltage range. The
SS 2 is switched in PWM. The duty ratio of SS 2 is the same as closed-loop transfer function can be derived as
(3). However, the output voltage of seven-level inverter can be
kpwm Gc /Lf 1/Lf
written as Io = I∗ − (Vu −2Vdc /3).
s+ki kpwm Gc /Lf o s+ki kpwm Gc /Lf
vo = d · Vdc /3 + Vdc /3 = kpwm vm + Vdc /3. (7) (10)
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3458 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014
TABLE I
STATES OF POWER ELECTRONIC SWITCHES FOR A SEVEN-LEVEL INVERTER
Fig. 6. Configuration of the proposed solar power generation system for sup-
pressing the leakage current.
As seen in (6), (8), and (10), the second term is the distur-
bance. Hence, a feedforward control, which is also shown in
Fig. 5, should be used to eliminate the disturbance, and the gain
Gf should be 1/kpwm .
In the negative half cycle, the seven-level inverter is switched
between modes 5 and 8, in order to output a voltage of −Vdc /3
or 0, when the absolute value of the utility voltage is smaller
than Vdc /3. Accordingly, S3 is switched in PWM. The seven-
level inverter is switched in modes 6 and 5 to output a voltage
of −2Vdc /3 or −Vdc /3 when the utility voltage is in the range
(−Vdc /3, −2Vdc /3).Within this voltage range, SS 2 is switched
Fig. 7. Simulation results of the proposed solar power generation system: (a)
in PWM. The seven-level inverter is switched in modes 7 and utility voltage, (b) negative terminal voltage for adding the symmetric filter in-
6 to output a voltage of −Vdc or −2Vdc /3, when the utility ductor, and (c) negative terminal voltage for adding the symmetric filter inductor
voltage is in the range (−2Vdc /3, −Vdc ). At this voltage range, and the extra filter C f –R f –C f .
SS 1 is switched in PWM and SS 2 remains in the ON state to
avoid switching of SS 2 . The simplified model for the seven-level solar power generation system is redrawn as Fig. 6. Fig. 7 shows
inverter in the negative half cycle is the similar to that for the the simulation results of the proposed solar power generation
positive half cycle. system. Fig. 7(b) is the negative terminal voltage of the solar
Since only six power electronic switches are used in the pro- cell array for the seven-level inverter with the symmetric filter
posed seven-level inverter, the power circuit is significantly sim- inductor of 0.95 mH. As seen in Fig. 7(b), this voltage contains
plified compared with a conventional seven-level inverter. The a high-frequency ripple. The peak-to-peak value of the high-
states of the power electronic switches of the seven-level in- frequency ripple is about 30 V, which is much smaller than that
verter, as detailed previously, are summarized in Table I. It can of a full-bridge inverter with unipolar switching [22], [23]. This
be seen that only one power electronic switch is switched in high-frequency ripple will result in a leakage current of solar
PWM within each voltage range and the change in the output cell array. If the leakage current of solar cell array is too high
voltage of the seven-level inverter for each switching operation to be accepted, an extra filter Cf –Rf –Cf , as shown in Fig. 6,
is Vdc /3, so switching power loss is reduced. Figs. 3 and 4 show can be added. Since the switching of S4 is synchronized with
that only three semiconductor devices are conducting in series the utility voltage, the extra filter Cf –Rf –Cf is only added in
in modes 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 and four semiconductor devices are the power-electronic leg (S1 , S2 ). Fig. 7(c) shows the negative
conducting in series in modes 2 and 6. This is superior to the terminal voltage of a solar cell array for the seven-level inverter
conventional multi-level inverter topologies, in which at least with the symmetric filter inductor and the extra filter Cf –Rf –Cf
four semiconductor devices are conducting in series. Therefore, of 1 μF–25 Ω–1 μF. As seen in Fig. 7(c), the high-frequency
the conduction loss of the proposed seven-level inverter is also ripple is attenuated effectively, so the leakage current can be
reduced slightly. The drawback of the proposed seven-level in- further reduced.
verter is that the voltage rating of the full-bridge converter is
higher than that of conventional multilevel inverter topologies.
The leakage current is an important parameter in a solar V. CONTROL BLOCK
power generation system for transformerless operation. The The proposed solar power generation system consists of a dc–
leakage current is dependent on the parasitic capacitance and dc power converter and a seven-level inverter. The seven-level
the negative terminal voltage of the solar cell array respect to inverter converts the dc power into high quality ac power and
ground [22], [23]. To reduce the leakage current, the filter in- feeds it into the utility and regulates the voltages of capacitors C1
ductor Lf should be replaced by a symmetric topology and the and C2 . The dc–dc power converter supplies two independent
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WU AND CHOU: SOLAR POWER GENERATION SYSTEM WITH A SEVEN-LEVEL INVERTER 3459
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3460 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014
TABLE II
PARAMETERS OF THE PROTOTYPE
Fig. 11. Experimental results of the dc–dc power converter: (a) ripple current
of inductor, (b) ripple voltage of capacitor C2, and (c) ripple voltage of capacitor
C1.
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WU AND CHOU: SOLAR POWER GENERATION SYSTEM WITH A SEVEN-LEVEL INVERTER 3461
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3462 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014
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