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Transformer-less converter concept

for a grid-connection of thin-film photovoltaic modules


Ulrich Boeke
Philips Research Laboratories
Philips Technologie GmbH
Aachen, Germany
ulrich.boeke@philips.com
Heinz van der Broeck
Institute of Automation Engineering
University of Applied Science
Cologne, Germany
Abstract A transformer-less converter concept for grid-
connected photovoltaic systems is proposed that combines a
DC/DC converter front-end with a DC/AC inverter. The
converter system has an earth-connected DC input, as required
from many thin-film photovoltaic modules. The DC/DC
converter increases the positive photovoltaic DC-bus voltage by
its negative DC output voltage to supply a grid-connected 3-phase
inverter. This architecture extends todays power electronic
converter topologies for thin-film photovoltaic modules
considering their special requirements with the ambition to
realize higher power conversion efficiencies at lower cost.
Thin-film photovoltaic, DC-DC, DC-AC, converter, earth
connection, efficiency
I. INTRODUCTION
Photovoltaic power systems are discussed to contribute in
a mix with other renewable energy sources to the energy
supply of the 21
st
century. However, costs of electricity from
photovoltaic modules are still higher compared with utility
bulk power especially due to high prices of photovoltaic
modules. A significant cost reduction of photovoltaic modules
is expected especially from a mass production of thin-film
photovoltaic modules that require less, however still complex,
production steps than modules with crystalline solar cells [1].
The most interesting application of photovoltaic (PV)
power systems are grid-connected power systems. In a mix
with other grid-connected renewable energy technologies such
as wind or biomass power plants, photovoltaic power systems
generate electricity especially in summer times when wind is
typically low and grids are often loaded additionally by air-
conditioning and other cooling systems [2].
Grid connected photovoltaic systems require DC/AC
converters to feed electricity form a DC bus of photovoltaic
modules into an AC utility grid. A converter has to load
photovoltaic modules with an optimum impedance to operate
modules in their maximum power point (MPP). It is important
that a converter does not generate AC voltages between the
photovoltaic module DC bus and earth to avoid earth-leakage
currents. Photovoltaic modules and also a converter in a
grounded cabinet may have significant parasitic capacitances
to earth. Todays most efficient photovoltaic converters for
crystalline solar cell modules operate with high European
Efficiencies of up to 97 % [3]. The term European
Efficiency is explained in the Appendix.
Converters for thin-film photovoltaic systems have, on the
other side, an additional requirement that limit European
Efficiencies of state of the art converters to 95%. This
requirement is an earth-connection of a photovoltaic DC-bus
minus-pole to avoid negative electric fields in the photovoltaic
modules to earth. That is discussed to avoid a transport of
positive charged sodium ions from a module front glass into
the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer of a thin-film
module [4, 5]. Due to these requirements, such a DC-bus
system is not able to supply directly a transformer-less,
voltage-feed, grid-connected 3-phase inverter. Practical,
DC/AC converter systems for thin-film photovoltaic systems
are realized by combing either a DC/DC converter front-end
with high frequency transformer with a grid-connected
DC/AC inverter [6, 7] or by combining a DC/AC inverter with
a grid frequency transformer depicted in Figure 1 [8]. Thus,
these converters include two converter stages and both low-
frequency or high-frequency transformer stages reduce the
converter efficiency by at least 2 % compared with
transformer-less single-stage inverters for crystalline solar
cells. Single-stage DC/AC converters for thin-film module
applications without a transformer are also known that make
use of the flying inductor concept [9, 10]. Products with this
technology realize European efficiencies of 95 % too [11, 12].
To extend power electronic converter topologies for thin-film
photovoltaic systems, this paper presents a transformer-less
converter concept that promises a realization of higher
conversion efficiencies. The basic idea of the proposed
converter concept is to use a transformer-less DC/DC
converter to increase a positive photovoltaic DC-bus voltage
of e.g. +500 V by its output voltage of e.g. 350 V to a suited
DC input voltage of a grid-connected 3-phase inverter
illustrated with Figure 2.
~
V
DC
+
-
N
L
V
AC
Grid frequency
transformer
Q
1
Q
2
Q
3
Q
4
L
1
L
2
M
C
1
C
2
L
3
PV
Figure 1: Typical circuit diagram of a photovoltaic inverter
with grid frequency transformer
978-1-4244-2279-1/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE 1
II. THIN-FILM PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES
A wide range of thin-film photovoltaic module
technologies exists today that make use of different chemical
composites. The proposed converter concept requires thin-film
modules that are approved to realize DC bus voltages of at
least 700 V. Table III in the Appendix documents modules
that fulfill this requirement. A proper interaction of modules
and converter requires the consideration of a module voltage
range that is a function of temperature, solar radiation and
load. A mathematical model to calculate that voltage range has
been proposed in [13]. It considers the first module in Table
III from Wuerth Solar as an example. For other modules in
Table II it is estimated that they operate with output voltage
between 55 % and 100 % of V
oc
(-10C) too. The index oc
stands for open-cathode as an acronym for an unloaded solar
cell. V
oc
(-10C) is often considered as worst case operation
point where a photovoltaic module generates its maximum
output voltage. The last column in Table III informs about the
number of series connected modules per string that generate
the required DC input voltage range for the proposed
converter. These numbers of modules in series result first in
MPP-voltages between 350 V550 V and second DC-bus
voltages of unloaded modules of maximum 700 V. Multiple
strings can be connected in parallel to design systems with
different nominal power levels.
New thin-film modules using amorphous silicon
technology degrade in the first weeks of operation.
Manufacturers offer this as free over-power. That also
increases the maximum module voltage, V
oc
up to 11 %. Thus
it is preferred to install such photovoltaic systems in summer
periods when module operating temperatures are not too low.
III. CONVERTER CONCEPT
The proposed converter concept consists of a DC/DC
converter and a 3-phase DC/AC inverter depicted in Figure 2.
The earth-connected DC voltage of a photovoltaic module
string is the positive DC supply voltage of the inverter. Its
value can change between a value slightly higher than the
peak voltage of an AC line-to-ground voltage and a certain
maximum value. The DC/DC buck-boost converter generates
from the positive DC input voltage V
in
= V
DC.1
a second
constant DC voltage V
DC.2
that is the negative supply voltage
for the inverter. That is similar to the converter concept in
[14]. That converter concept, however, considers that PV-
modules also generate the earth-connected negative DC supply
voltage of an inverter that is not recommended for the use of
thin-film PV modules as discussed above. Thus the converter
concept in this paper extends the converter concept from [14]
to fulfill the special requirements of thin-film PV-modules.
Vin
+350 V....
+700 V .
PV
C4
C5
L1
L3
VDC.2
+350 V
Control
DC/DC Converter DC/AC Inverter
L4
C7 C8 C9
400 V
3-phase
AC grid
Vinverter
Q1 D1
D3
Q3
Q4
Q5 Q7
Q6 Q8
D9
D4 D6
D5 D7
D8
Iplus
Iminus
Figure 2: Principle circuit diagram of the proposed converter system
A 3-phase inverter has been chosen for the converter
concept because of the lower current stress in buffer capacitors
C4 and C5. Transformer-less 3-phase inverters for
photovoltaic applications with crystalline solar cells and high
efficiencies up to 98 % are known [15, 16]. Thus, the paper
focuses in the following on the design of an efficient DC/DC
buck-boost converter for the proposed converter concept.
After that the operation of voltage-feed 3-phase inverter with
two unbalanced DC supply voltages will be discussed.
A. DC/DC Converter
The converter system benefits from a realization of a DC-
DC converter that operates between zero and full-load with
very high efficiency. Thus the use of a soft-switching active-
clamped buck-boost converter is proposed that is depicted in
Figure 3. The active clamping mechanism is realized by
means of additional components switch Q2 with inverse diode
D2 and snubber capacitor C2, clamping capacitor C6 as well
as inductor L2.
Classical PWM-controlled active-clamped DC/DC
converters operate with fixed switching frequency [17, 18].
Hereby, the clamping voltage changes as a function of the
relative power level and relative input to output voltage
transfer ratio. One challenge of an active-clamped buck-boost
converter design in the given application is a limitation of the
clamping voltage V
clamp
to a relative small value. A large
clamping voltage results either in a low useful converter DC
input voltage range or an unfavorable high voltage stress of
the power semiconductors. To limit the clamping voltage a
different control principle has been chosen for the active-
clamped buck-boost converter in this paper.
The buck-boost converter operates with two independent
and constant regulated DC voltages V
DC.2
and V
clamp
at
medium to maximum power levels. A variable switching
frequency is a consequence of that operation Mode 2. Below
a certain medium power level the converter is forced to
operate with its maximum specified switching frequency in
Mode 1. The clamping voltage is no longer regulated and
drops below its regulated value of Mode 2 that has been
learned from an analytical converter model. In Mode 1 the
converter behavior has a floating transition from an active-
clamping converter to a bi-directional soft-switching buck-
boost converter similar to the resonant-pole principle [19].
C4
C5
L1 L2
C6
C3
C1
C2
D3
D2
D1 Q1
Q2
IL1 IL2
Vclamp
Vinveter
PV
Vin
VDC.2
Figure 3: Principle circuit diagram of an active-clamped
buck-boost converter
2
To study the converter behavior two converter models
have been developed. An analytical converter model has been
used to study the influence of the control principle with its
switching frequency limitation in Mode 1 and regulated
clamping voltage in Mode 2. That analytical model considers
a loss-less, hard-switching converter.
The second more complex converter model includes soft-
switching details e.g. capacitors C1, C2, C3, dead-time
intervals between gate signals of Q1 and Q2 and current time
functions in L1 and L2 during these dead time intervals. This
second model can be calculated, however, only numerically.
All details of the more complex model are considered in the
converter time functions depicted in Figure 4 that considers
data of the prototype documented in Chapter IV.
A practical difference between both models is that the
complex model considers a current drop in inductor L2 during
the dead time after the turn-off of power semiconductor Q1.
Due to that I
L2
(t
a
+t
b
) is slightly smaller than I
L2
(t
.a
) in
opposite to the definition of equation (9). Time interval t
b
is
slightly shorter and the switching frequency is slightly higher
than calculate with the analytical model.



0 10 20 30 40 50 60
time (s)
Figure 4: Numerical calculated time functions of an active-clamped
buck-boost converter
Vin = +350 V, VDC.2 = +350 V, Vclamp = +50 V, P = 3 kW, fs = 19.3 kHz
1) Analytical DC/DC converter model
The analytical converter model of a loss-less, hard-
switching, active-clamped buck-boost converter considers a
set of nine equations that includes:

Difference equations (1), (2), (3), (4) of the effective


inductance in four time intervals t
a
, t
b
, t
c
, t
b
+t
c
of a
switching frequency period,
The definition of the switching frequency (5),
The definition of input and output power (6), (7), (8),
A condition of the active-clamping mechanism to operate
with constant average charge in a clamping capacitor (9).
a
t
in
V
2 L 1 L
1
I 2
+
= (1)
[ ]
b clamp 0
t V
2 L
1
I I 2 = + (2)
[ ]
c 2 . DC in 0
t V V
2 L
1
I 2 + = (3)
( )
c b 2 . DC
t t V
1 L
1
I 2 + = (4)
c
t
b
t
a
t
s
f
1
+ + = (5)
[ ]
s c s a 0 in in
f t I f t I V P = (6)
( ) [ ]
s c s c b 0 2 . DC out
f t I f t t I V P + + = (7)
P
in
= P
out
= P (8)
( ) ( )
a
t
2 L
I
b
t
a
t
2 L
I = + (9)
In Mode 1, these equations have been solved to calculated
the parameters I, I, t
a
, t
b
, t
c
, V
clamp
.
2 . DC 2 1 in 1
2 . DC in
max . s
V ) L L ( V L
V V
f 2
1
I
+ +

= (10)
2 . DC in
2
in
2 1
in max . s
0
V V
L
V
L L
1
V f I 2
P
I
+


= (11)
in
2 1 a
V
I 2
) L L ( t

+ = (12)
2 . DC in
0 2
c
V V
I 2 L
t
+

= (13)
c a
max . s
b
t t
f
1
t = (14)
b
0
2 clamp
t
) I I ( 2
L V
+
= (15)
In Mode 2, these equations are used to calculate
parameters f
s
, I, I, t
a
, t
b
, t
c
as well as a current ratio A. Figure
5 till Figure 7 illustrate data calculated with parameters of the
prototype documented in Chapter IV.
On
Off
VGate(Q1) VGate(Q1) VGate(Q2)
VCE(Q1)
V(D3) V(D3)
I(L1)
I(L2)
-I(D3)
800 V
600 V
400 V
200 V
0 V
30 A
20 A
10 A
0 A
-10 A
-20 A
-30 A
-40 A
t
a
t
b
t
c
I
0
I
I
3
clamp
2 . DC
2 1
2 . DC in
2 . DC
clamp
2 . DC
2
V
V
L L
V V
V
V
V
L
A

|
|
.
|

\
|
+
+
= (16)
(
(
(
(
(

+
+ + +
+
+
+ +

+
=
) V V ( V V A
V V L ) V V ( V L ) A 1 (
) V V ( V V A
) V V ( V ) L L ( A
.......
V V
L
V
L L
P
I
2 . DC in
2
in clamp
clamp in 2 2 . DC in in 2
2 . DC in
2
in clamp
2 . DC in clamp 2 1
2 . DC in
2
in
2 1
0
(17)
0
I A I = (18)
in
2 1 a
V
I 2
) L L ( t

+ = (12)
clamp
0
2 b
V
) I I ( 2
L t
+
= (19)
2 . DC in
0 2
c
V V
I 2 L
t
+

= (13)
Figure 5 till Figure 7 illustrate calculated operation
parameters considering data of the prototype that is discussed
in Chapter IV. The transition between Mode 1 and Mode 2 is
at about 1200 W when operating with V
in
= 350 V and at
about 1750 W when operating with V
in
= 550 V. The
switching frequency is limited to 50 kHz in Mode 1. In Mode
2 the clamping voltage is regulated to 50 V and the switching
frequency varies between 19 kHz and 50 kHz as function of
input voltage and power level.
Figure 7 illustrates that the converter operates also at no-
load with a peak current of 3.4 A in L2 at the time points when
Q1 and Q2 are turned off. That allows soft- switching even at
no-load.
Switching frequency (kHz)
0 1000 2000 3000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Power (W)
Figure 5: Calculated switching frequencies

Clamping voltage (V)
0 1000 2000 3000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Power (W)
Figure 6: Calculated clamping voltage

Inductor peak current (A)
0 1000 2000 3000
0
5
10
15
20
25
Power (W)
Figure 7: Calculated inductor peak current in L1 and L2
Vin = 550 V
Vin = 350 V
Vin = 550 V
Vin = 350 V
Vin = 350 V
Vin = 550 V
4
2) DC/DC converter control
The controller sub-circuit of the active-clamped buck-
boost converter, depicted in Figure 8, makes use of two PI-
type voltage regulators and a dual-peak current control circuit.
The voltage controller of the buck-boost converter output
voltage, V
DC.2
generates the reference signal for the positive
peak currents in inductors L1 and L2. Once the regulated
current and energy levels in L1 and L2 has been reached
comparator 2 generates a reset signal for a flip-flop that turns-
off Q1 and turns-on active-clamping switch Q2.
The voltage controller of the clamping voltage, V
clamp
generates the reference signal for the negative peak current of
the inductor L2. Once this current level has been reached
comparator 1 generates the set-signal for the flip-flop that
turns-off Q2 and turns-on Q1. Additionally comparator 1 feeds
a mono-stable circuit (a one-shot timer) that generates a pulse
with an equivalent length equal to the time period of the
maximum switching frequency. Thus the next set-signal for
the flip-flop can be generated first if the inverted output of the
mono-stable circuit (one-shot) is high again.
Our converter prototype uses a LEM LTSR 25-NP
current shunt to monitor the current time function in inductor
L2. That current shunt generates with two primary turns an
output signal of 0.05 V/A and it has a peak current range of
40 A that is transferred into output signals of 2.0 V. The
output signals of the two voltage regulators are limited such
that the peak current reference signals do not exceed signals
equivalent to 35 A. That is important e.g. during the start of
the converter when capacitors C5 and C6 are charged with
maximum allowed current to generate the nominal values of
V
DC.2
and V
clamp
.
The output signals of the flip-flop are feed first into a sub-
circuit that generates dead-time signals and second into a
standard level-shifter (IR2213) to drive the two power
semiconductors Q1 and Q2 of the buck-boost converter. The
actual prototype uses constant dead-time signals to support the
soft-switching of the converter. That can be principally
extended to adapted dead-time generation that monitors the
dV/dt of power semiconductor Q2 as given in [18].
IL2
V(IL2)
VDC.2
Vclamp
One
Shot
20us
& S
R
Q
Q
Gate Q1
Gate Q2
Flip
Flop
Comp 1
Comp 2
VLimitter
VLimitter
VRef
2.5 V
VRef
2.5 V
PI-type voltage regulator 1
PI-type voltage regulator 2
Figure 8: Principle control circuit
B. DC/AC Inverter
The 3-phase DC to AC inverter shown in Figure 2 consists
of 3 independent single phase inverters which are supplied by
unsymmetrical DC voltages (V
in
and V
DC.2
). As illustrated in
Figure 9 each inverter feeds an almost sinusoidal current into
the grid. This current is set by a closed loop control circuit and
pulse width modulation (PWM). The carrier or switching
frequency of the PWM is much higher than the grid frequency.
g s
f
1
f >>

= (20)
Thus, only small filter components are required to
sufficiently attenuate all high frequency harmonics of the
PWM. As the grid frequency depending voltage drop at the
filter components (L
f
, R
L
) is very low, the duty cycle of the
PWM:
)
+

=
2 / t
2 / t
2 . DC in
1
1
dx
V V
) x ( V 1
) t ( V (21)
almost follows the AC grid voltage:
( ) t f 2 sin V

) t ( V
g g g
= (22)
superposed by the lower DC link voltage U
DC.2
.
Considering the modulation factor
1
V
V

m 0
2 . DC
g
= < (23)
this means the PWM can be described by the equation
) t f 2 sin( m
V V
V
) t ( V
g
2 . DC in
2 . DC
1
+
+
. (24)
As the grid current I
g
(t) is controlled offset free, the
average currents supplied from the two different DC voltages
for all three inverter legs are equal.
2 . DC in
inverter
2 1
V V
P
I I
+
= = (25)
Moreover, the power flow in symmetrical 3-phase system is
constant so that the DC supply voltages are not stressed by
low frequency harmonics.
Vin
Vdc2
Q4
Q3
D3
D4
~
Vg
Ig
Lf RL
V1
I1
I1
Figure 9: Principle circuit diagram of one inverter phase
D9
I
2
I
1
V
in
V
DC.2
V
g
V
1
I
g
5
The power to be supplied by the buck-boost converter is
equal or less than half the inverter output power.
2 . DC in
2 . DC
inverter boost buck
V V
V
P P
+
=

(26)
The operation of the 3-phase inverter has been studied by
means of a MathCAD simulation. For illustration purposes the
frequency ratio considered in the simulation is low: f
s
/f
g
= 33.
In Figure 10 the PWM generation of all three phases is shown
based on the highest voltage ratio V
in
= 2*V
DC.2
. In addition,
the normalised PWM voltage V
1
(t) of phase R is shown in
Figure 11. The corresponding grid current I
g
(t) and the overall
switched inverter input current I
1
(t) are depicted in Figure 12.
PWM input signals
0
0.33
0.67
1
0 4 8 12 16 20
t (ms)
Figure 10: PWM carrier and inverter output reference signals
Vin = +700 V, VDC.2 = +350 V, fg = 50Hz, fs = 1.65 kHz
Normalized PWM voltage V1(t)/[Vin+VDC.2]
N
0
0.5
1
0 4 8 12 16 20
t (ms)
Figure 11: Calculated normalized PWM signal of phase R
Vin = +700 V, VDC.2 =+ 350 V, fg = 50Hz, fs = 1.65 kHz
Normalized inverter currents
N
1
0
1
0 4 8 12 16 20
t (ms)
Figure 12: Calculated inverter input current I1 and grid current Ig of phase R
IV. EXPERIMENTS
An active-clamped buck-boost converter prototype has
been build to verify the calculated converter functionality.
Parameters of the converter depicted in Figure 3 are collected
in Table I.
The key components of the active-clamped buck-boost
converter design are the two inductors L1 and L2. The value
of active-clamping inductor L2 is a compromise of stored
energy to support soft-switching and the switching frequency
range. An inductor with less than 25 H does not store enough
energy to support the soft-switching of Q1 and Q2. An
inductance of more than 25 H results in a lower minimum
switching frequency than 19 kHz that could be optionally
compensated with a higher clamping voltage. The inductance
value of L1 has been identified with the diagram in Figure 13.
The stored energy in L1 has a minimum for L1= 500600H.
An inductance value of L1 = 600 H has been chosen since a
lower value results in larger current stress and lower minimum
switching frequency than 19 kHz too. Inductor L1 has been
realised by means of a four inductor components in parallel.
TABLE I. BUCK-BOOST CONVERTER PROTOTYPE DATA
Parameter or Component Value
Vin 350 V700 V
VDC.2 350 V
Vclamp 50 V
P 0 W3000 W
fs.max 50 kHz
C1, C2 output capacitances of
Q1+D1, Q2+D2
C3 output capacitance of D3
C4, C5, C6 680 F
L1 600 H, 4x E65-3C94
L2 25 H, ETD49-3C94
Q1, Q2 Infineon IHW25N120R2
D3 Cree C2D10120A
Energy (mJ)
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000
L
1
(H)
Figure 13: Calculated peak energy values in inductors (L2 = 25 H)
E
L1.peak
10*E
L2.peak
Phase R Phase S Phase T
I
g
I
1
0
6
Measured time functions of an active-clamped buck-boost
converter prototype are depicted in Figure 14. The converter
operates in this operation point in Mode 1 with 20% of its
nominal power level and an efficiency of 90 %. The collector-
emitter voltage of the IGBTs is nicely clamped to 731 V due
to the active-clamping mechanism. The control circuit
generates two gate signals that have fixed dead time intervals
of about 400 ns. That results in a dV/dt of about 731V/500ns
at the IGBTs. Hereby, only the output capacitances of
semiconductors Q1+D1, Q2+D2 and D3 are used as snubber
capacitances C1, C2 and C3.
The measurement also shows an unwanted oscillation of
the inductor current I
L2
after the turn-off of IGTB Q
2
. Thus it
is difficult to identify the end of time period t
c
from that
measurement that is an issue of further investigations.
Figure 14: Measured buck-boost converter time functions
Vgate = 10 V/div, VCE = 200 V/div, IL2 = 5 A/div, t = 5 s/div
Vin = +350 V, Vout = +358 V, Vclamp = +23 V, Pin = 660 W, Pout = 596 W
V. SUMMARY
A transformer-less converter concept for a grid-connection
of thin-film photovoltaic modules is proposed. The converter
concept uses a DC/DC converter to increase a positive and
earth-connected photovoltaic DC-bus voltage by its negative
DC output voltage to supply a grid-connected DC/AC inverter.
Since the DC/DC converter processes only 50 % of the power
of the inverter, the concept describes a quasi 1.5-stage
converter. An active-clamped buck-boost converter is
proposed as DC/DC converter since it offers soft-switching
operation with moderate internal reactive power flow. The
control of the buck-boost converter considers an operation in
two modes either with limited maximum switching frequency
in Mode 1 at low power levels or with regulated clamping
voltage in Mode 2 at medium to maximum power levels.
VI. OUTLOOK
The authors would like to motivate a debate weather
DC/AC inverters for grid-connected photovoltaic systems
must have an insulation transformer that are currently required
by legal standards in some countries or by manufacturers of
thin-film photovoltaic modules. As alternative, only an earth-
connect DC-bus voltage is proposed as an alternative
specification. That can be realized with less effort compared
with high- or grid-frequency transformers in photovoltaic
converters as proposed in this paper as well as in [9, 10].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Mr. Jost Wendt from Infineon for the
support with IGBTs and the discussion of their use in soft-
switching power converters.
IL2
VCE
VQ1.gate
VQ2.gate
ta tb tc
0V
0V
0A
7
APENDIX
A. European Efficiency
The European Efficiency value
Eu
of converters for
photovoltaic applications, proposed by R. Hotopp, is a
definition of an average efficiency value that considers
different weighting factors for six different power levels to
consider the probability of different solar radiation levels in
Europe [1].
TABLE II. PARAMETERS TO CALCULATE THE EUROPEAN EFFICIENCY
Relative power level 5 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 50 % 100 %
Weighting factors 3 % 6 % 13 % 10 % 48 % 20 %
%) 100 ( P %) 50 ( P %) 30 ( P
%) 20 ( P %) 10 ( P %) 5 ( P Eu
2 . 0 48 . 0 1 . 0
13 . 0 06 . 0 03 . 0
+ + +
+ + =
(20)
B. Thin-film photovoltaic module data
Data of available thin-film photovoltaic modules are
collected in Table III. These modules fulfil the specification of
a DC-bus system voltage of at least 700 V. A PV-module
voltage in the maximum power point (MPP) V
MPP
(+25C) is
given in data sheets. A PV-module voltage of an unloaded
module (oc = open-cathode) at -10C is used typically as
maximum considered module voltage. It can be calculated by
using V
oc
(+25C) and its temperature coefficient that are both
given in module data sheets. The minimum PV-module MPP-
voltage occurs at its maximum operating temperature. Typical
+70C are considered at maximum operating temperature. The
minimum MPP voltages in Table III are estimated to be 55 %
of V
oc
(-10C) based on the solar cell model in [13]. Further
abbreviations in Table II are explained below.
a-Si Amorphous silicon thin-film technology
CdTe Cadmium-Telluride thin-film technology
CIS Cooper-Indium-Disolenoid thin-film technology
CIGS Cooper-Indium-Germanium-Disolenoid thin-film technology
Wp Watt-peak solar module power level at standard test conditions
-Si Microcrystalline silicon thin-film technology
TABLE III. DATA OF THIN-FILM PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES SORTED BY EFFICIENCY TAKEN FROM DATA SHEETS
IMPP, VMPP, Voc at a solar radiation of 1000 W/m
2
and air mass = 1.5
Manufacturer Tech-
nology
Thin-film module
type
Nominal
power
Module
Efficiency
IMPP
(25C)
VMPP(+70C)
~Voc(-10C)/1.8
VMPP
(+25C)
Voc
(-10C)
Modules
per string
Units Wp % A V V V
Wuerth Solar CIGS WSG 11007/80 80 11.0 2.23 ~31.2 35.9 50.1 1314
First Solar CdTe FS-272 72.5 10.1 1.07 ~54.4 67.9 97.9 7
Sulfurcell CIS SCG60-HV 60 7.3 1.48 ~31.8 41 57.3 12
CSG Solar GmbH -Si CSG-90 90 6.5 1.45 ~53.1 63 95.7 7
United Solar Ovonic a-Si ES-127 127 6.5 4.2 ~29.5 30.2 53.1 1213
Schott ASI 86 a-Si ASI 86 86 5.9 5.49 ~14.4 19.1 26 2526
REFERENCES
[1] H. Haeberlin: Photovoltaik, VDE Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8007-3003-2,
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[2] The combined power plant project: www.kombikraftwerk.de
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2003
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Central 6000 SMA Technologie AG, University of Applied Science
Bern, 2005, in German, http://labs.hti.bfh.ch/index.php?id=1373
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Grid-Feeding Solar-Inverters, Proceedings of the EPE Conference 2007
[16] Danfoss: TripleLynx Inverter Range: Three phase 10, 12.5 and 15 kW,
data sheet, 2007
[17] B. Andreycak: Active clamp and reset technique enhances forward
converter performance, Texas Instruments, Application Note SLUP108,
1994
[18] U. Boeke: High Efficiency Flyback Converter Technology, Proceedings
of the 4th Power Conversion Conference PCC, Nagoya, Japan, 2007
[19] D. Divan, G. Venkataramanan, R.W.De Docker: Design methodologies
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Application Society Meeting 1987, pp. 152-160
[20] K. Harada, H. Sakamoto: Switched snubber for high frequency
switching, Proceedings of the IEEE Power Electronics Specialists
Conference, PESC, 1990, pp. 181-188
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