Shade-tolerant photovoltaic microinverter with time adaptive seamless P-V curve sweep MPPT

This paper proposes a novel approach to photovoltaic (PV) module level power electronics (MLPE). Functionally, it is a hybrid of PV power optimizer and microinverter with such key features as shade-tolerant (or global) maximum power point tracking (MPPT), galvanic isolation, direct AC connectivity, PV module level monitoring and safety cut-off, flexibility of installation and PV power system sizing. Focus is on the realization of the shade-tolerant MPPT, which is a new feature of the PV microinverters. Explanations are provided both from the hardware and software point of view. The experimental results, challenges and possibilities of future development of the proposed approach are analyzed and discussed.