Decision making framework for solar photovoltaic power conditioning unit topologies using Six Sigma

The fast pace of technology and business innovation in the renewable energy sector can make it difficult to thoroughly evaluate competing technologies, often because incontrovertible data is lacking or obscured by speculation, hype, and vaporware claims. Thus an impartial and comprehensive tool is needed to analyze qualitative and subjective parameters. This paper proposes the use of Six Sigma as a quantitative method to evaluate and analyze the heart of Photovoltaic (PV) Systems - the power conditioning unit. Six Sigma tools such as Fishbone Diagram, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Priority Matrix are applied to chalk out the boundaries of different power conditioning unit configurations and inverter topologies for both small scale (including residential) and utility scale energy conversion.