In order to cope with climate change and ease energy shortage, countries around the world are promoting the shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy resources. At present, photovoltaic (PV) power station is one of the most potential green development projects, in which PV inverters are of great importance and are developed rapidly in recent years. According to Wood Mackenzie's analysis, the global photovoltaic industry is expected to reach 300 GW by 2025, with the PV inverter market size of $18 billion.
AT32 MCU-Based Photovoltaic Applications Promote Development of New Energy
2023-01-16
As a key component of photovoltaic (PV) power system, the PV inverter connects PV array to power grid and controls the charging and discharging process of batteries, so as to ensure long-term stable operation of PV power station. Although PV inverter only accounts for 8%~10% of the total cost the PV power system, it plays a key role in DC-to-AC conversion, power control and grid connection/off-grid switching, as well as the intelligent control of photovoltaic system.
PV inverters are designed to use MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) technology to extract the maximum possible power from solar panels and feed clean energy back to the gird, which requires accurate sampling of power voltage and current and generating PWM for power switches in DC/DC and DC/AC through intelligent use of MCUs. In addition, MCUs can be used for overload and short-circuit protection and support functions including communication, data transmission and human-computer interaction. In this regard, AT32F435, AT32F403A and AT32F421 series MCUs have been successfully applied in PV inverters.
Application of AT32 MCUs in PV Inverters
1. AT32F435 series MCUs with up to 288 MHz computing speed and rich high-performance peripherals can deal with the complex control algorithm of inverters efficiently and replace DSP to reduce cost and promote efficiency;
2. 3 x advanced timers output three-phase complementary PWM that meets the requirements of sine wave inverters;
3. 3 x 12-bit 5.33Msps A/D converters help accurate measurement of voltage and current to meet the requirement of high precision control of inverter drive circuits.
1. AT32F403A series MCUs with up to 240 MHz computing speed and 224 KB SRAM can deal with communication and HMI efficiently to meet the needs of intelligent control of inverters such as communication and HMI;
2. SPIM can be connected with QSPI Flash to realize a transfer rate of up to 90 MHz and store log and other data rapidly.
There are two high-performance MCU series, e.g. AT32F435 and AT32F437. Both series are based on ARM® Cortex®-M4 32-bit core bringing about up to 288 MHz computing speed, and designed with rich peripherals, 3x high-speed (5.33 Msps) ADC engines and 2x DACs. Besides, AT32F437 series have compatible IEEE-802.3 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port controller to improve data transmission efficiency and stability. With advanced processing capability, high performance & flexibility and easy-to-use features, AT32F435 and AT32F437 series MCUs are the best options for applications requiring high computing speed and large storage memory. These two high-performance MCU series have been put into mass production and applied to industrial automation, motor control, IoT and consumer electronics.
AT32 MCU-based PV inverters are intelligent and safe with high performance and reliability, and can be used to improve power conversion quality to provide more stable clean power with less harmonic waves, so as to guarantee the safety and stability of power grid and improve power generation efficiency of PV system. Artery AT32 MCUs with high efficiency, high stability and cost-effectiveness are used to develop safer and more efficient and intelligent photovoltaic application solutions, to help sustainable development of green and low-carbon society.