Wide-bandgap semiconductor based power converters for renewable energy systems

Abstract

The demand for low carbon economy and limited fossil resources for energy generation drives the research on renewable energy sources and the key technology for utilisation of renewable energy sources: power electronics. Innovative inverter topologies and emerging WBG semiconductor based devices at 600 V blocking class are the enabling technologies for more efficient, reliable and accessible photovoltaic based electricity generation. This thesis is concerned with the impact of WBG semiconductor based power devices on residential scale PV inverter topologies in terms of efficiency, volume reduction and reliability. The static and dynamic characterisation of the Si and WBG based devices are carried out, gate drive requirements are assessed and experimental performance comparison in a single phase inverter is discussed under wide range of operating conditions. The optimisation of GaN HEMT based single phase inverter is conducted in terms of converter efficiency, switching frequency and converter volume. The long term mission-profile based analysis of GaN and Si based devices is conducted and impact of WBG devices under low and high switching frequency conditions in terms of power loss and thermal loading are presented. Finally, a novel five-level hybrid inverter topology based on WBG devices is proposed, simulated and experimentally verified for higher power applications