Review of Thyristor Based Grid Tied Inverters for Solar PV Applications

It is desirable to convert abundance of solar energy which is available at free of cost into electrical energy and to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, to avoid its adverse effects on environment. For converting bulk energy from solar photovoltaic (PV) module/ array and to integrate it with the utility grid there is a need of efficient dc-to-ac converters. For this both the single and the multi-stage converters are being used which includes different high frequency switching techniques. However, dc-to-ac converters utilizing thyristors are utilized for low power and high efficiency grid connected inverters for solar photovoltaic (PV) applications as these converters are of low cost, robust and reliable which can operate even in adverse condition and at high ambient temperature. This paper compares the performances of different thyristor based dc-to-ac converters by using MATLAB/Simulink platform, also to validate the simulation results the laboratory based prototype of these inverters are developed.