Solar Power Converters

Cristian Lascu
 Gemasolar solar-thermal power plant, Sevillia, Spain, 2011

20 MW, 95% efficiency, 2650 heliostats x 120 m2 each, 130 m tower

Tengger Desert Solar Park

China, 2016
1547 MW, 43 km2
Longyangxia solar park and dam, China, 2015, 850 MW
Solar Star power plant
California, Antelope Valley, USA
2015

597 MW ac, 747.3 MW dc

1.7 million panels
Topaz solar power plant, California, USA, 2014, 550 MW - 9 million CdTe PV modules
 Agua Caliente solar power plant, Arizona, USA, 2014

290 MW nominal - 400 inverters, 800 kW, 1000 V each,

5.2 million CdTe PV modules, 75 W each
Copper Mountain Solar 1 & 2, Nevada USA, 2013, 150 MW, 1 million CdTe PV panels
 Contents

1. Introduction
2. PV cell characteristic and models
3. Photovoltaic inverters
4. Multilevel inverters
Solar potential map of Europe

Annual total potential

• In north Europe: ca.

1000 kWh/m2/year

• In south Europe: ca.

2000 kWh/m2/year.
 Solar potential of the world

SOLAR IRRADIATION VERSUS ESTABLISHED GLOBAL ENERGY RESOURCES

FOSSIL FUELS ARE EXPRESSED WITH REGARD TO THEIR TOTAL RESERVES WHILE
RENEWABLE ENERGIES TO THEIR YEARLY POTENTIAL.
Typical summer day energy production of a
PV residential system
Example of a low-power residential PV generation system
2. PV Cell V-I Characteristic
PV Cell Characteristic vs. irradiation level
PV Cell Characteristic vs. temperature
PV Cell Power Characteristics vs. temperature
Typical PV generation system with dual-stage inverter
Maximum power point tracking - MPPT
Perturb and observe algorithm - P&O
 Maximum power point tracking - MPPT
Incremental conductance algorithm - INC
Maximum power point tracking - MPPT
Constant voltage algorithm - CV
 Maximum power point tracking - MPPT
Constant voltage algorithm - CV

Constant voltage algorithm is based on the fact that the open circuit
voltage and the maximum power point voltage change only a little
with irradiation.
For a wide range of irradiations, for crystalline modules the maximum
power point voltage is about 76% of the open circuit voltage :

Vref = 0.76 VOC

Photovoltaic Cell Model - single-diode model

Output current

Thermal voltage
Photovoltaic Cell Model - single-diode detailed model

Output current

Contains 5 unknown parameters: Iph, I0, Vt, Rs, Rsh

 Photovoltaic Cell Model - dual-diode model

Output current
where:

Rs - internal series resistance []

Rsh - internal shunt resistance []
I0 - diode dark saturation current [A]
I01 - diode 1 dark saturation current [A]
I02 - diode 2 dark saturation current [A]
ns - number of series connected cells
q = 1.6e-19 - electron electric charge [C]
k = 1.381e-23 - Boltzmann constant [J/K]
A - diode ideality factor (A<1)
T - temperature [K]
Iph - photoelectric current [A]
Photovoltaic Cell Parameters

Open-circuit voltage

Thermal voltage

Short-circuit current

Efficiency (randament)
 Photovoltaic Cell Parameters

assuming

and exp(V+IRs)/Vt >> 1

The parameters for the simple PV model are solutions of

this system:
The solution is:

where Voc, Isc, Vmp, Imp are datasheet parameters.

 Photovoltaic Cell Parameters

The parameters for the detailed PV model are solutions of

this system:

open-circuit current

maximum power
current
short-circuit current

This system must be solved numerically.

 3. Photovoltaic inverters

3.1 Single phase inverters

• H bridge
• H5, H6
• HERIC, ZVR
• NPC

3.2 Three phase inverters

• three phase bridge
• three phase NPC
• three phase multilevel
Transformerless photovoltaic inverter topologies

Single power processing Dual power processing

Dual stage, dual power

processing inverter
 Transformer based photovoltaic inverters

Low frequency High frequency transformer for

transformer inverters connected to grid

High frequency transformer for dc-dc converters connected to a dc bus

Transformerless inverter with line filters
Full-bridge single-phase inverter
Figs. 2.1 – 2.4
Full-bridge single-phase inverter
Full-bridge inverter operation

Vout > 0
Iout > 0

Vout = 0
Iout > 0
Full-bridge inverter operation

Vout < 0
Iout < 0

Vout = 0
Iout < 0
Bipolar modulation
Bipolar modulation
Unipolar modulation
Unipolar modulation
Hybrid modulation
Hybrid modulation
H5 inverter
Figs. 2.5, 2.6
H6 inverter
Figs. 2.11, 2.12
H5 and H6 inverter modulation – method 1
H5 and H6 inverter modulation – method 1
 H5 and H6 inverter modulation – method 1

Vref > 0: T1, T4 – on, T2, T3 – off, T5, T6 – PWM

Vref < 0: T1, T4 – off, T2, T3 – on, T5, T6 – PWM

H5 and H6 inverter modulation – method 2
H5 and H6 inverter modulation – method 2
H5 and H6 inverter modulation – method 2
 H5 and H6 inverter modulation – method 2

Vref > 0: T1, T4 – on, T2, T3 – PWM, T5, T6 – PWM

(T2, T3 complementary to T5, T6)
Vref < 0: T1, T4 – PWM, T2, T3 – on, T5, T6 – PWM
(T1, T4 complementary to T5, T6)
 H6 inverter modulation - simulation results
PWM method 1

PWM method 2
 HERIC inverter
Figs. 2.7, 2.8
Highly efficient and reliable inverter concept
ZVR inverter
Figs. 2.13, 2.14
REFU inverter
Figs. 2.9, 2.10
TNPC half-bridge inverter
Figs. 2.17, 2.18
Neutral point clamped (NPC) half-bridge inverter
Figs. 2.15, 2.16
Boost inverter with LF transformer
Fig. 2.20
Boost inverter with HF transformer
Fig. 2.19
 Three-phase inverters
Three-phase two-level inverter
Three-phase inverter

UaN UbN UcN

Uab Ubc

Ua Ub Uc
Phase voltages Line-to-line voltages

k Sa Sb Sc ua ub uc
1 100 2Vdc/3 -Vdc/3 -Vdc/3
2 110 Vdc/3 Vdc/3 -2Vdc/3
3 010 -Vdc/3 2Vdc/3 -Vdc/3
4 011 -2Vdc/3 Vdc/3 Vdc/3
5 001 -Vdc/3 -Vdc/3 2Vdc/3
6 101 Vdc/3 -2Vdc/3 Vdc/3
0 000 0 0 0
7 111 0 0 0
PWM for three-phase inverters
PV inverter control
 4. Multilevel Inverters

Topologies:
• neutral point diode-clamped (NPC)
• neutral point clamped (NPC)
• flying capacitor inverters
• coupled inductor inverters
• cascaded multilevel converters
• modular multilevel converters (MMC)

Advantages:
• low voltage waveform distortions
• reduced electromagnetic interference
• operate at lower switching frequency
Neutral point diode-clamped (NPC) H-bridge inverter
Sa = 2 VaN = 2Vdc
Sa = 1 VaN = Vdc
Sa = 0 VaN = 0
NPC inverter modulation
 NPC inverter modulation

Vab = Vdc(Sa – Sb)

Sa = S1 + S2
Sb = S3 + S4
Three-phase three-level NPC diode-clamped inverter
NPC inverter modulation
NPC inverter modulation
 NPC inverter modulation

Vab = Vdc∙(Sa – Sb) Va = Vdc∙(Sa – (Sa + Sb + Sc)/3)

Vbc = Vdc∙(Sb – Sc) Vb = Vdc∙(Sb – (Sa + Sb + Sc)/3)
Vca = Vdc∙(Sc – Sa) Vc = Vdc∙(Sc – (Sa + Sb + Sc)/3)
Carrier selection for NPC modulation

Phase disposition:

carriers are in
phase

Phase opposition:

carriers are shifted

180 deg.
Three phase NPC inverter - simulation results
Three phase NPC inverter - simulation results
Three phase NPC inverter - simulation results
Voltage space vectors of a three-level inverter
Three-phase T-NPC inverter
Three phase T-NPC inverter - simulation results
Three phase T-NPC inverter - simulation results
Three-phase 11-level cascaded H-bridges inverter
 Three-phase cascaded H-bridges inverter

Advantages:
• creates a large number of output voltage
levels: n = 2m+1
• modular topology and manufacturing

Disadvantages:
• requires separate dc sources, one for each
module
• uses a large number of power transistors
Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC)
Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC)
MMC Arm Topology
MMC Operation
 MMC Cell Module - ABB
2 x 8 IGBT-s: 4.5 kV, 4000 A
MMC: ±320 kV dc, 1200 MW, 37 cells/arm, fsw = 150 Hz
MMC Operation
 MMC with 12 sub-module
per arm
Experimental results

Inductive Load

Resistive Load
 Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC)

Advantages:
• uses a common dc bus for all phases
• contains a large number of modules (up to 300)
• harmonic distortion is very low and no filters are
necessary
• PWM is not necessary; works with low switching
frequency (200 Hz)
• high efficiency - 99%

Disadvantages:
• very complex control for voltage balancing
• requires large and expensive capacitors
Three-phase six-level diode-clamped inverter
 Three-phase six-level diode-clamped inverter

Advantages:
• uses a common dc bus for all phases
• can be used in back-to-back topologies
• high efficiency for fundamental switching
frequency

Disadvantages:
• complicated control for voltage balancing
• large number of clamping diodes
Six-level diode-clamped back-to-back inverter
Three-phase six-level flying capacitor inverter
 Three-phase six-level flying capacitor inverter

Advantages:
• phase voltage redundancies are available
• possibility of balancing the capacitor voltages
• ride through capability

Disadvantages:
• complicated control for voltage balancing
• large number of capacitors
• poor switch utilization and efficiency for real
power transmission
 Control of multilevel inverters
Switching states of a six-level inverter
Voltage space vectors of a six-level inverter
 Voltage space vectors of a six-level inverter

Phase voltages
Transistor states

Transistor j on leg a

ha  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} - state of leg a

j = 1, …, n
n = m–1
m - the number of levels
Example: voltage vector (ha, hb, hc) = (3, 2, 0)

Total number of
states: m3
Voltage vector trajectory for a six-level inverter
Carrier based PWM for multilevel inverters
 Carrier based PWM for six-level inverters
Constant switching frequency

Modulation indexes:
Levels:
Modulation indexes:

Frequency ratio

Amplitude modulation index

Minimum modulation index for

which all levels are used
 Carrier based PWM for six-level inverters
Adaptive switching frequency

Modulation indexes: for band 2

for band 0 and 1