Abstract

The transformer-based inverters in PV systems increase the weight, size, and cost of the inverter while reducing efficiency. This research presents a new PV inverter topology to increase efficiency using a reduction of dc-link. The proposed multilevel inverter is comprised of six power switches, one discrete diode, and three capacitors to produce five voltage levels. The proposed inverter is connected to a PV panel at input and a local grid at output to inject a sinusoidal current waveform into the grid. To control the grid current, a finite set model predictive control is needed to evaluate the proposed inverter. A comparison study is carried out between the proposal and other five-level inverters to verify the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed multilevel inverter. Finally, to demonstrate the performance of the proposed multilevel inverter, the simulation results are presented in the MATLAB/Simulink environment.