Teardown of a real MPPT inverter

mike95490
mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Grid Tie and Grid Interactive Systems #1
from a trade magazine - excerpt:
This teardown article will delve into the architectural design and components of a solar inverter card starting from the Solar panel DC inputs and working our way through the DC to AC conversion process to the AC output that is sent out to the power grid. We will show what features need to be implemented into such a design to meet various safety and other performance standards as well as stringent power company demands upon the signal that is put onto their grid.

link to entire article
http://www.edn.com/article/520564-Teardown_The_power_inverter_from_sunlight_to_power_grid.php?cid=NL_UBM+Electronics

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Note the "clean & orderly" parts on the PCB:
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Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,

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Comments

  • jagec
    jagec Solar Expert Posts: 157 ✭✭
    #2
    Re: Teardown of a real MPPT inverter

    Interesting. I'd read about SMA's "H5" topology in their transformerless inverters, of course, but their marketing materials never actually mentioned what it was.

    I had also thought that the big electrolytics were used for AC smoothing, not DC. I suppose that means that as they inevitably start to lose capacitance with age, the MPPT algorithm will become less efficient?

    I wonder how clean the AC waveform looks, given that it is generated entirely by switching components. After all, no filters are perfect. Be interesting to see it on an oscilloscope.
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