New symmetric and hybrid multilevel inverter topology employed in solar energy systems

In this paper, novel symmetric and hybrid topologies have been proposed for single phase multilevel inverter structures based on a new basic unit. The proposed topologies can be employed in solar energy systems. The main focus of this paper is to reduce the overall cost as well as to increase the efficiency of the multilevel inverters. To generate greater number of voltage levels, the basic units have been cascaded with each other to make extended topology. Different comparisons such as the number of power switches and percentage of THD against the number of voltage levels have been drawn to illustrate the advantages of the proposed topologies. To validate the performance of the proposed topologies, a 20 kW PV arrays based on fifteen-level hybrid inverter has been simulated through MATLAB/Simulink software.