Compact integrated solar energy generation systems
Solar energy generation systems, or any renewable systems, usually include energy storages, local dc loads and grid-tied dc-ac inversion stages. Almost always, these entities have their own power converters for processing the intermediate solar energy transferred through the systems. Having individual converters does have some advantages like more flexible individual control and easier design, but it does not provide opportunities for merging functionalities, needed for reducing the overall semiconductor count, and hence a more compact integrated design. Addressing this latter concern, a number of integrated solar energy generation systems using 25% lesser semiconductor is proposed here for either single-phase or three-phase realization. The proposed systems allow various combinations of solar sources, energy storages and local loads to be compactly assembled for either grid-tied or standalone usage, and through proper control, the overall systems can still deliver the same levels of performances as their traditional correspondences. For verifying the practicality of the proposed integrated systems, simulation is first performed.