Design and performance investigation of switched capacitor based multilevel inverter

Abstract

Renewable energy sources including wind, solar PV and fuel cells are vital to fulfil the energy demand in a sustainable way. For optimal utilization of these renewable resources, power electronic interfaces are essential. Mainly DC-DC and DC-AC converters are employed as the power electronic interfaces between the sources and utility grid or a standalone load. Since solar PV and fuel cells are accessible as low voltage and high current sources, they often require a boosting stage. Hence a high gain DC-DC converter followed by DC AC converter are employed typically to interface the solar PV and fuel cell output to the AC grid or a standalone load requiring AC supply. Though two stage power electronic interfaces cater more merits, but it instigates high voltage stress on second stage which is one the major limitations. In the literature, Z-source inverters are used as single stage power electronic interface to overcome the above said drawback but, the use of inductance makes them bulkier. newline