Evaluation of cascaded H-bridge inverter for utility-scale photovoltaic systems

In this paper, the cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter is evaluated as a PV power conversion solution for large-scale PV power plants. The advantages and disadvantages of the CHB inverter for large-scale PV power plants are discussed. Comparison between the CHB and conventional central inverters is also presented in terms of efficiency and cost. For comprehensive assessment of the CHB inverter on the system level, a system-level evaluation is also performed in this paper. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is used as the evaluation metric. LCOE of PV system with either the conventional central or CHB inverters is calculated for different geographic locations and PV module technologies. The comparative evaluation demonstrates the promising benefits in using the CHB inverter for large-scale PV power plants.