A comprehensive techno-economic review of microinverters for Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)

Increasing incentives for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) generation at local/major grid levels established it as a viable decentralized option promising large growth potential. BIPV systems – comprising photovoltaic (PV) modules installed on available building surfaces and downstream energy conversion devices – afford improvement of energy efficiency of buildings and partially or fully dispenses with the supply of centralized grid power. This paper presents a comprehensive techno-economic review, covering the technical as well as commercial aspects of microinverter technology. Advantages of microinverters over conventional inverters are detailed along with a discussion on economics of its installation in distributed solar generation systems. Different power converter topologies reported in the available literature are presented. The paper also reports the historical development of commercial microinverters and their present status in the Photovoltaic (PV) market. Survey of the available products from some of the technology leaders in the market has been done and their specifications are tabulated. The paper concludes with a discussion on the necessities of the next generation microinverters for increased penetration in the PV market.