9. dc-ac Inverters

In this chapter, we will consider power electronic circuits that produce variable-frequency ac output voltages from dc sources. This functionality in power electronics is becoming very important for the ever-increasing penetration of photovoltaic (PV) systems. All kinds of inverters at various power ratings, and output voltage levels, have been designed and commercialized over the last two decades. Moreover, one class of converters known as microinverters is designed at the module level. The first introduction of fully integrated microinverter and a PV panel (known as ac module) was first introduced and commercialized by Dr. Batarseh’s team at the University of Central Florida (UCF). More recently the team at UCF is developing one module that takes the input from four PV panels, in the process introducing a new class of inverters may be best to be called mini-inverters since their power range is between the microinverter and string inverter.