A Single Stage Photovoltaic Inverter With Common Power Factor Control and Maximum Power Point Tracking Circuit

Abstract

This paper presents a unique approach towards the reduction of steps employed in conversion of power produced by a photovoltaic energy system. When a Photovoltaic system feeds an ac load, the power conditioning system of a Photovoltaic energy conversion system consists of a boost converter at the first stage to boost up the direct current (dc) supply, and an inverter to convert this boosted supply to alternating current (ac) at the second stage. But in this conventional system, losses happen at both the stage which makes the whole system to have low efficiency. The proposed approach in this paper has only one stage conversion. In this single step conversion the direct current supply is boosted and converted to alternating current with the help of a single inverter circuit. This process of power conditioning is carried out with respect to the load connected as well to the maximum power with respect to the variant irradiation and temperature condition. The load connected to the system is tested under varying environmental conditions of the photovoltaic system. Nature of output power from the system is studied by varying the irradiation and temperature of the photovoltaic array.