Solar Array Inverter with Maximum Power Tracking

An inverter for use in connecting a DC power source to the utility grid includes a single DC-AC conversion stage, maximum (source) power tracking, and current control based on feed-forward compensation as a function of input power voltage error, rectified utility line voltage, and a scaled inverse of RMS utility line voltage. Various topologies of the inverter power stage are developed for bi-directional power-flow operation after those developed for unidirectional power-flow operation. Various embodiments also include over-voltage protection, over-current protection, under-voltage protection, over-temperature protection, and stand-by battery with battery management control, while still others are adapted for a multiple-channel front-end distributed power system with distributed maximum power tracking for serving as a single DC power source input to the inverter system downstream with controllers, emergency or auxiliary loads, and alternative current feedback control systems. Improved control architectures are developed with bipolar sensing of the inverter output current and a bipolar sinusoidal reference signal.