Voltage and Current Source Modular Multilevel Converters Comparison for PV Integration

Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) have recently gained interest among researchers and companies involved in developing new power conversion systems for the integration of renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaic (PV). MMCs show several advantages compared to traditional two-level converters, such as low total harmonic distortion, higher flexibility for the control and distributed maximum power point tracking capability. Two main families of modular multilevel converters (MMCs) have been proposed in literature: voltage source and current source converters. The aim of this paper is to compare two specific voltage and current source modular multilevel converter topologies for PV applications, fixing constraints on the number of DC voltage/current levels, maximum power point trackers and power electronics components (i.e., switches and diodes). Finally, an energetic comparison is also proposed, considering the total inductive and capacitive energy.