Design and Validation Non-Isolated Boost Converter for Cascaded Photovoltaic Application

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) has been widely used for converting solar energy into electricity. Since the output voltages from the PV module are low (12, 24V), PV panels must be combined into series or parallel configurations to get the desired voltage. However, in such a configuration, a PV module that is not identical to other panels may cause a short circuit or decrease PV power. A cascaded DC-DC converter system can solve this problem. Each output voltage of the panel or sub-string can be controlled separately. A conventional boost converter topology in a cascaded system requires a high duty cycle value. This causes the switching components to heat up quickly, resulting in power losses. Therefore, a proposed DC-DC converter topology with a low-value duty cycle and low component ratings is designed for a cascaded system. One main advantage of the proposed topology is its ability to produce a voltage gain of 3 times the input voltage with a duty cycle of 37%. Theoretical analysis, simulations, and comparison with other conventional converter topologies were carried out to validate the converter's performance.