Overview of novel loss-mitigating schemes for high-frequency-link inverters with application potential for photovoltaics, wind, fuel cell, energy storage, and EV/HEV

Recently, several new loss-mitigating modulation strategies have been developed for high-frequency-link (HFL) inverters, which demonstrate capability for high efficiency and low total harmonic distortion (THD) in spite of the fact that, the HFL inverter operates without any intermediate dc-link filter. An overview of these technologies and mechanisms and their performance evaluation have been provided in this paper. The compactness, direct power conversion (DPC), and dc-link-filter-less solution (hence high reliability) of the HFL inverters make them suitable candidates for renewable and alternative energy applications for smart grids and smart microgrids including photovoltaics, wind, fuel cell, energy storage as well as for battery-vehicle (e.g. EV/HEV/PHEV) applications.