ANN Controlled Single-Phase Microinverter for Off-Grid Solar Application

The voltage produced by solar panels fluctuates due to change in irradiance, temperature, and shading. This makes it challenging to obtain a stable voltage suitable for powering devices that use regular household electricity. This article proposes a solar microinverter with artificial neural network (ANN) controller that can handle input voltages ranging from 24 to 46 V and consistently produces an output voltage of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$230V_{\text {rms}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. A modified Z-source converter with an active switch helps achieve the requisite gain. The ANN controller enables dynamic adjustment of the duty ratio in response to fluctuations in input voltage or load, ensuring optimal control and performance. The proposed microinverter provides a common grounding feature between the solar panel and load; this suppresses the photovoltaic (PV) leakage current. This article provides a detailed circuit operation explanation, and real-time validation confirms the performance of microinverter under practical conditions. This solution addresses the challenge of obtaining stable voltages for household device power supply from solar panels.