A new multilevel inverter for grid connection of PV modules

摘要

This paper introduces the new multilevel inverter with reduced number of devices for grid connected PV modules applications. The proposed inverter needs reduce number of devices therefore the size, complexity and cost are much lower than the conventional and other recently proposed multilevel inverters. The proposed multilevel inverter is capable to produce 9/13/17- levels in an output using only 10-switches, 10-diodes, 8-drivers 4-capacitors and only 2-dc sources. In addition, the proposed inverter has an inherent natural voltage balancing across the capacitors, which decreases the requirement of additional voltage balancing circuit as requires in other conventional (flying capacitor and diode clamped) multilevel inverters. The comparison of proposed inverter with other inverters is also presented to show the advantages of proposed inverter. Finally, the performance of proposed inverter for 9/13/17-level has been evaluated using MATLAB/Simulink software and experimental results.