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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 22, NO. 3, MAY 2007

Multi-Input Inverter for Grid-Connected

Hybrid PV/Wind Power System
Yaow-Ming Chen, Senior Member, IEEE, Yuan-Chuan Liu, Shih-Chieh Hung, and Chung-Sheng Cheng

AbstractThe objective of this paper is to propose a novel

multi-input inverter for the grid-connected hybrid photovoltaic
(PV)/wind power system in order to simplify the power system
and reduce the cost. The proposed multi-input inverter consists of
a buck/buck-boost fused multi-input dcdc converter and a fullbridge dcac inverter. The output power characteristics of the
PV array and the wind turbine are introduced. The perturbation
and observation method is used to accomplish the maximum
power point tracking algorithm for input sources. The operational
principle of the proposed multi-input inverter is explained. The
control circuit is realized by using a digital signal processor and
auxiliary analog circuits. For practical applications, functions of
soft-start and circuit protection are implemented. Experimental
results have shown the performance of the proposed multi-input
inverter with desired features.
Index TermsInverter, photovoltaic (PV), wind energy.

I. INTRODUCTION
PPLICATIONS with photovoltaic (PV) energy and wind
energy have been increased significantly due to the rapid
growth of power electronics techniques [1][3]. Generally, PV
power and wind power are complementary since sunny days are
usually calm and strong winds are often occurred at cloudy days
or at nighttime. Hence, the hybrid PV/wind power system therefore has higher reliability to deliver continuous power than either individual source [4], [5]. Traditionally, a substantial energy
storage battery bank is used to deliver the reliable power and to
draw the maximum power from the PV arrays or the wind turbine
for either one of them has an intermittent nature [6]. However,
the battery is not an environmental friendly product because of
its heavy weights, bulky size, high costs, limited life cycles, and
chemical pollution. Therefore, it is very common to utilize the
solar or wind energy by connecting them to the ac mains directly.
Usually, two separated inverters for the PV array and the wind
turbine are used for the hybrid PV/wind power system [7]. An
alternative approach is to use the multi-input inverter for combining these renewable energy sources in the dc end instead of
the ac end. It can simplify the hybrid PV/wind power system
and reduce the costs.
The objective of this paper is to propose a novel multi-input
inverter for grid-connected hybrid PV/wind power system. The

Manuscript received January 18, 2005; revised April 10, 2006. This paper was
presented at the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition,
Austin, TX, 2005. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor Z. Chen.
Y.-M. Chen is with the Elegant Power Application Research Center,
(EPARC), Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chung Cheng
University, Chia-Yi 621, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail: ieeymc@ccu.edu.tw).
Y.-C. Liu is with the NuLight Technology Company, Tainan 741, Taiwan,
R.O.C.
S.-C. Hung is with Anpec Co., Ltd., Hsinchu 886, Taiwan, R.O.C.
C.-S. Cheng is with Richtek Technology Co., Hsinchu 302, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2007.897117

proposed multi-input inverter has the following advantages:

1) power from the PV array or the wind turbine can be delivered
to the utility grid individually or simultaneously, 2) maximum
power point tracking (MPPT) feature can be realized for both
solar and wind energy, and 3) a large range of input voltage variation caused by different insolation and wind speed is acceptable.
II. OPERATION PRINCIPLE OF THE PROPOSED
MULTI-INPUT INVERTER
The schematic diagram of the proposed multi-input inverter
is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a buck/buck-boost fused multiinput dcdc converter and a full-bridge dc/ac inverter. The input
and
, are obtained from the PV
dc voltage sources,
array and the rectified wind turbine output voltage. By applying
the pulse-with-modulation (PWM) control scheme with approand
, the
priate MPPT algorithm to the power switches
multi-input dcdc converter can draw maximum power from both
the PV array and the wind turbine individually or simultaneously.
, will be regulated by the dc/ac inverter
The dc bus voltage,
with sinusoidal PWM (SPWM) control to achieve the inputoutput power-flow balance. Details of the operation principle
for the proposed multi-input inverter are introduced as follows.
A. PV Array
The PV array is constructed by many series or parallel connected solar cells [8]. Each solar cell is form by a junction
semiconductor, which can produce currents by the photovoltaic
effect. Typical output power characteristic curves for the PV array
under different insolation are shown in Fig. 2. It can be seen that a
maximum power point exists on each output power characteristic
curve. Therefore, to utilize the maximum output power from the
PV array, an appropriate control algorithm must be adopted [9].
B. MPPT Algorithm
Different MPPT techniques have been developed [10][12].
Among these techniques, the perturbation and observation
(P&O) method with the merit of simplicity is used in this paper.
The perturbation of the output power is achieved by periodically
changing (either increasing or decreasing) the controlled output
current. The objective of the P&O method is to determine the
changing direction of the load current. Fig. 3 shows the flow
chart of the MPPT algorithm with P&O method for the proposed multi-input inverter. Since there are two individual input
sources, each one of them needs an independent controller.
However, both of the controllers can be implemented by using
one integrated controller.
At the beginning of the control scheme, the output voltage
and output current of the source (either the PV array or the
can be
wind turbine) are measured, then the output power

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CHEN et al.: MULTI-INPUT INVERTER

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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed multi-input inverter.

Fig. 2. Typical output power characteristic curves of the PV array under different insolation.

calculated. By comparing the recent values of power and voltage

with previous ones, the P&O method shown in the flow chart
can determine the value of reference current to adjust the output
power toward the maximum point.
C. Wind Turbine
Among various types of wind turbines, the permanentmagnet synchronous wind turbine, which has higher reliability
of the
and efficiency, is preferred [13][16]. The power
wind can be derived as
(1)
is the area (m ) swept
where is the air density (kg/m ),
is the wind speed (m/s). It had been
by wind blades, and
, of the wind
proven that the energy conversion efficiency,
turbine is a function of the tip speed ratio,
, which is defined
as
(2)
where is the rotational speed (rad/sec) of wind turbine blades,
is the radius of the area swept by wind turbine blades. A typical

Fig. 3. Flow chart of the MPPT algorithm with P&O method.

curve of the
versus
is shown in Fig. 4, where the maximum value of
is only achieved at a particular tip speed ratio.
Since the speed of the wind is not constant, the rotational speed
of the wind turbine must be adjustable to ensure a constant tip
. The output current change
speed ratio to gain the maximum
of the wind turbine will cause of the rotational speed as well as
to change. Since
is a function of
, the output power
of the wind turbine will change, too. Therefore, by controlling
the output current of the wind turbine, the rotational speed of the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 22, NO. 3, MAY 2007

Fig. 4. Typical curve of the C

versus 

Fig. 6. Typical output power characteristic curves of the wind turbine for different wind speed.

Fig. 5. Conceptual block diagram of the experimental setup for wind power
generation system.

wind turbine blades can be adjusted to achieve the appropriate

can be
tip speed ratio. Eventually, the maximum value of
obtained and the maximum power can be transferred from the
airstream to the wind turbine to produce the maximum electrical
power.
For the convenience of experiment, instead of natural wind,
a controllable dc motor is used to drive the wind turbine to simulate the actual operation situation under the natural air-stream.
Fig. 5 shows the conceptual block diagram of the experimental
setup for wind power generation system. For different dc voltage
provided by the dc motor controller, the dc motor will receive a
limited maximum power to drive the directly coupled wind turbine. When the output power of the wind turbine is small, the
dc motor will request small power from the dc source to drive
the wind turbine. When the output current of the wind turbine
is increased, the output voltage and the rotational speed will be
decreased. Also, the dc motor needs to provide a larger torque to
the wind turbine. Since the dc motor has limited maximum input
power predetermined by the control box, it can only provide
limited maximum torque to the wind turbine which can only
generate a limited maximum power to the load. Fig. 6 shows
typical output power characteristic curves of the wind turbine
under different driving power from the controllable dc motor.
These curves have same characteristics with those driven by the
natural air-stream. Each one of the curves represents a constant
driving power from the dc motor. The output power of the wind
turbine is drawn by an electronic load. The load current is gradually increased, and then the output power can be measured.
Output power characteristic curves shown in Fig. 6 imply that
the wind turbine will generate different maximum output power
for different wind speed. Because the output power characteristic curves of the wind turbine are similar to those of the PV
array shown in Fig. 2, the P&O method is adopted as the MPPT

Fig. 7. Equivalent circuits for the multi-input dcdc converter. (a) Mode I.
(b) Mode II. (c) Mode III. (d) Mode IV.

algorithm for the wind turbine. Therefore, a power electronic

converter with appropriate controller is needed to process the
wind energy which varies considerably according to the meteorological conditions such as wind speed.
D. Multi-Input DCDC Converter
The proposed multi-input dcdc converter is the fusion of the
buck-boost and the buck converter [17]. Syntheses of the multiinput dcdc converter are done by inserting the pulsating voltage
source of the buck converter into the buck-boost converter. In
order not to hamper the normal operation of the buck-boost converter and to utilize the inductor for the buck converter, the pulsating voltage source of the buck converter must be series-connected with the output inductor.
and
,
Base on the conduction status of the switches
the multi-input dcdc converter has four operation modes.
Fig. 7(a)(d) show the equivalent circuits for Mode I through
or
are turned
Mode IV, respectively. When switches
and
will provide a free-wheeling path for
off, diodes
the inductor current. If one of the voltage sources is failed, the
other voltage can still provide the electric energy, normally.
Therefore, it is very suitable for renewable energy applications.
Details of the circuit operation principle can be found in [17].

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CHEN et al.: MULTI-INPUT INVERTER

1073

Fig. 8. Conceptual control block diagram of the proposed multi-input inverter.

The input-output voltage relationship can be derived from the

steady-state volt-second balance analysis of the inductor. If
has longer conduction time than
has, then the equivalent operation circuit for one switching cycle will follow the sequence
of Mode I, Mode III, and Mode IV. On the other hand, if
has longer conduction time than
has, the sequence becomes
Mode II, Mode III, and Mode IV. In either case, the output
voltage can be expressed as
(3)
where
and
are the duty ratio of switches
and
,
respectively. Similarly, the average input and output current can
be obtained
(4)

unit, digital signal processor (DSP) TMS320F240, and auxiliary analog circuits. The sensed voltage and current values for
the PV array and the wind turbine are sent to the DSP where the
and
MPPT algorithm will determine the reference current
for the PV array and the wind turbine. The PWM Comparator1 and Comparator2 will generate desired gate signals for
and
according to the current error sigpower switches
nals and , respectively.
The dc/ac inverter will inject a sinusoidal current into the ac
through
mains. The SPWM gate signals of switches
for producing sinusoidal ac current is generated by the DSP
where the amplitude of the ac current is determined by the error
and the reference
signal of the measured dc bus voltage
. If the measured dc bus voltage is less than the refone,
erence value, then the amplitude of the ac output current will be
decreased in order to increase the dc bus voltage. On the contrary, if the dc bus voltage is higher than the reference one, then
the amplitude of the ac output current will be decreased. On the
other point of view, the dc bus voltage is regulated by the dcac
inverter and the input-output power balance can be achieved.
For practical operation considerations, functions of softstart, over-voltage protection, over-current protection, and
under-voltage protection are all realized by the controller, too.
Since both of the input currents for the PV array and the wind
turbine is controlled by the MPPT algorithm with P&O method,
the starting current is gradually increased and the soft-start
function of the input current is naturally obtained. Also, during
the starting transition, the ac output current for the utility line is
limited by the reference current command and the small amount
of input power. Therefore, the soft-start demand for the output
current is achieved naturally. In order to control the proposed
multi-input inverter properly, the central control unit, DSP,
need to sense the input voltages, input currents, dc bus voltage,
output voltage, and output current, continuously. Therefore, no
extra sensor is needed to realize these protection functions.

(5)
From the above derived steady-state voltage and current equations, different power distribution demands of the multi-input
dcdc converter can be achieved.
E. Control Scheme
The conceptual control block diagram of the proposed multiinput inverter is shown in Fig. 8. The hardware implementation of the control circuit is realized by using a central control

Input voltages
DC bus voltage
Output voltage
Output power
Switching frequency

III. HARDWARE RESULTS

To verify the performance of the proposed multi-input inverter for grid-connected hybrid PV/wind power system shown
in Fig. 1, a prototype with the specifications, shown at the
bottom of the page, is implemented. The PV array is formed
by 24 series-connected Solarex Maga SX-60 solar panels while
the Bergey BWC 1500 is used for the wind turbine. Each PV
array has peak power of 60W and open voltage of 21V. The
wind turbine is a three-phase permanent magnetic generator
with rated power of 1.5 kW at rated wind speed of 12.5 m/s.

V DC
V DC
V DC
V AC
Hz
kW
kHz

and

kHz

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1074

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 22, NO. 3, MAY 2007

Fig. 9. Measured waveforms of gate driving signals, v

ductor current i .

and v

, and inFig. 11. Measured waveforms of the dc bus voltage and the ac output current.

Fig. 10. Measured waveforms of voltage, current, and power for the PV array
and the wind turbine.

The prototype of the multi-input inverter is built and tested

step by step. First, the multi-input dcdc converter with MPPT
feature is tested. Fig. 9 shows the measured waveforms of gate
of
and
of
, and inductor curdriving signals,
. Because switches
and
have different duty rarent
tios, the inductor current has two different charging slopes. It
reveals that the multi-input dcdc converter can deliver power
from both of the two energy sources to the dc bus simultaneously. The measured waveforms of voltage, current, and power
for the PV array and the wind turbine are shown in Fig. 10. In
Fig. 10, the PV array is first connected to the multi-input dcdc
converter. Output current of the PV array is then increased gradually because of the MPPT control algorithm with the P&O
method. Eventually, the output power of the PV array will reach
its maximum power point and stay around that place. The maximum output power of the PV array is very close to the predetermined one where the power is drawn by using the electronic load. On the other hand, the wind turbine is connected
to the multi-input dcdc converter, too. The output current and
voltage waveforms of the wind turbine are very similar to the
PV arrays. Due to the measurement limitation of the oscilloscope, the power waveform for the wind turbine is not shown in
Fig. 10. However, Fig. 10 shows that the MPPT feature for the
PV arrays and the wind turbine are both achieved.
The incoming power from the PV array or/and the wind turbine will cause the rise of the dc bus voltage. The value of dc
bus voltage is regulated by adjusting the amplitude of the ac
output current. If the value of the dc bus voltage is higher than
a pre-set range, then the ac output current of the dc/ac inverter
will be increased in order to lower the dc bus voltage. On the
contrary, if the dc bus voltage is smaller than the pre-set range,
the amplitude of the ac output current must be reduced to boost
up the dc bus voltage. Fig. 11 shows the waveforms of the dc

bus voltage
and the ac output current. It can be seen that
the input-output power balance of the proposed multi-input inripple patverter can be achieved. Also, the dc bus voltage
tern and the envelope of the ac output current are related since
is regulated by controlling the magnitude
the dc bus voltage
of the ac output current.
Fig. 12(a) shows the waveforms of the dc bus voltage and the
ac output current when only the PV array is connected to the
proposed multi-input inverter. At the beginning, the controller
will send out the PWM gate signal with MPPT feature to switch
when the utility line voltage is detected. Once the dc bus
voltage reaches its pre-set range, the dc/ac inverter will begin
to inject ac output current into the utility line. Since the input
power is not a constant, a small variation of the ac output current
amplitude can be found in Fig. 12(a). The ac output voltage
and current waveforms of the proposed multi-input inverter are
shown in Fig. 12(b). Using Power Analyzer Voltech 100, the
measured power factor is 0.99 and the total harmonic current
distortion is less than 3%. Fig. 13(a) and (b) show the similar
results when only the wind turbine is connected to the proposed
multi-input inverter. The measured power factor is 0.99 and the
total harmonic current distortion is less than 3.5%. Because the
response of the wind turbine is slower than the PV arrays, it has
relatively larger dc bus ripple voltage.
Fig. 14(a) shows the waveforms of the dc bus voltage and the
ac output current when both of the PV array and the wind turbine
are connected to the proposed multi-input inverter. A stable ac
output current with small variation can be obtained when both
of the input sources reach their MPPT condition. The ac output
voltage and current waveforms are shown in Fig. 14(b), where
the measured power factor is 0.99 and the total harmonic current
distortion is about 4.5%. The experimental results clearly show
that the proposed hybrid PV/wind power system can draw power
from the PV array and the wind turbine individually or simultaneously with MPPT feature. Also, almost unity power factor
and very low harmonic current distortion can be achieved.
For practical applications, many circuit protection functions
are included in the hardware realization. Some of the testing
waveforms are shown in Fig. 15(a)(c). The testing waveforms
for under-voltage and over-voltage protection are shown in
Fig. 15(a). The proposed multi-input inverter can inject ac
output current when the value of the dc bus voltage is inside
the pre-set range. Outside this range, there will be no ac output
current. It should be noticed that there is an initial value for
. Fig. 15(b) shows
the ac output current reference signal,
the testing waveforms for the utility line fault protection. The

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CHEN et al.: MULTI-INPUT INVERTER

1075

Fig. 12. Waveforms of the proposed multi-input inverter when only the PV array is supplying power. (a) The dc bus voltage and the ac output current waveforms.
(b) The expanded ac output voltage and current waveforms.

Fig. 13. Waveforms of the proposed multi-input inverter when only the Wind turbine is supplying power. (a) The dc bus voltage and the ac output current waveforms. (b) The expanded ac output voltage and current waveforms.

Fig. 14. Waveforms of the proposed multi-input inverter when both of the PV array and the wind turbine are supplying power. (a) The dc bus voltage and the ac
output current waveforms. (b) The expanded ac output voltage and current waveforms.

utility line voltage is indicated by

. When the utility line
will change from high voltage level
voltage is detected,
to low voltage level gradually and stay at low level. It can be
used to limit the maximum duty ratio of the power switches
and
of the multi-input dcdc converter during the start-up
transient and to achieve the soft-start function. Once the ac
will change its status to high voltage
mains is off-line,
level, immediately. Gate driving signals for power switches of
the proposed multi-input inverter will be turned off immediately
to realize the shutdown protection function. Fig. 15(c) shows
the waveforms of the dc bus over-voltage protection. When the
dc bus voltage is over the limitation, the gate driving signals

for the power switches

the incoming power.

and

will be turned off to stop

IV. CONCLUSION
A novel multi-input inverter for the grid-connected hybrid
PV/wind power system is proposed. It has the following advantages: 1) power from the PV array or the wind turbine can
be delivered to the utility grid individually or simultaneously,
2) MPPT feature can be realized for both PV and wind energy,
and 3) a large range of input voltage variation caused by different insolation and wind speed is acceptable. In this paper,
the operation principle of the proposed multi-input inverter has

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[4] L. Solero, F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, O. Honorati, and F. Mezzetti,

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Fig. 15. Some testing waveforms for circuit protection functions. (a) The
under-voltage and over-voltage protection. (b) The utility line fault protection.
(c) The dc bus over-voltage protection.

been introduced. The perturbation and observation method is

adopted to realize the MPPT algorithm for the PV array and
the wind turbine. The control circuit is implemented by using
a DSP and auxiliary analog circuits to accomplish the desired
control functions and circuit protection. Experimental results
under different operation conditions were shown to verify the
performance of the proposed multi-input inverter with desired
features.
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Yaow-Ming Chen (S96M98SM05) received

the B.S. degree from National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1989 and the M.S.
and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Missouri,
Columbia, in 1993 and 1997, respectively, all in
electrical engineering.
From 1997 to 2000, he was with I-Shou University,
Dashu, Taiwan, as an Assistant Professor. In 2000,
he joined National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi,
Taiwan, where he is currently an Associate Professor
in the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research interests include renewable energy, power electronic converters, power
system harmonics and compensation, and intelligent control.

Yuan-Chuan Liu was born in Chia-Yi, Taiwan,

R.O.C., in 1973. He received the B.S. and Ph.D.
degrees from National Chung Cheng University,
Chia-Yi, in 1996 and 2006, respectively, both in
electrical engineering.
In 2006, he joined the NuLight Technology
Compay, Tainan, Taiwan, as a Senior Engineer. His
research interests include developing and designing
of converter topologies, power-factor correctors, and
electronic ballasts.

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CHEN et al.: MULTI-INPUT INVERTER

Shih-Chieh Hung was born in Changhwa, Taiwan,

R.O.C., in 1980. He received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees from National Chung Cheng University,
Chia-Yi, Taiwan, in 2002 and 2004, respectively,
both in electrical engineering.
In 2004, he joined the Anpec Co., Ltd., Hsinchu,
Taiwan, as a Senior Engineer. His research interests
include analog IC application systems and microprocessor-based application systems.

1077

Chung-Sheng Cheng was born in Tainan, Taiwan,

R.O.C., in 1980. He received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees from National Chung Cheng University,
Chia-Yi, Taiwan, in 2003 and 2005, respectively,
both in electrical engineering.
In 2006, he joined the Richtek Technology Co.,
Chupei, Hsinchu, Taiwan, as a Senior Engineer. His
research interests include power management IC applications.

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