Energy Yield Assessment Methodology for Photovoltaic Microinverters

Abstract

Two-stage photovoltaic (PV) microinverters with a buck-boost front-end converter can provide unparalleled performance under shading conditions. However, their efficiency curve is not monotonic across the input voltage range. As a result, it is hard to predict energy production under known weather conditions. The proposed methodology utilizes interpolation of microinverter efficiency based on the experimental efficiency look-up table. Modeling of the maximum power point of a PV module based on the Lambert W function could be combined with the interpolated efficiency to estimate energy produced by a microinverter. The proposed methodology requires only two synchronized datasets, solar irradiance and ambient temperature, as the input variables.