Modeling and controller design of PV micro inverter without using electrolytic capacitors and input current sensors

This paper outlines the modeling and controller design of a novel two-stage photovoltaic (PV) micro inverter (MI) that eliminates the need for an electrolytic capacitor (E-cap) and input current sensor. The proposed MI uses an active-clamped current-fed push-pull DC-DC converter, cascaded with a full-bridge inverter. Three strategies are proposed to cope with the inherent limitations of a two-stage PV MI: (i) high-speed DC bus voltage regulation using an integrator to deal with the 2nd harmonic voltage ripples found in single-phase systems; (ii) inclusion of a small film capacitor in the DC bus to achieve ripple-free PV voltage; (iii) improved incremental conductance (INC) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) without the need for current sensing by the PV module. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed system.