Multiple Input DC-DC Converters for Solar Cell

Power Supply System and Its Maximum Power Point

Tracker
Anu A A

Divya R

M.Tech Power and Energy

Amrita School of Engineering
Kollam, Kerala

Dept. of Electrical and Electronics

Amrita School of Engineering
Kollam, Kerala

Abstract Recently environmental problems

have attracted
great attention on a worldwide scale. Therefore, the
exploitation of clean-energy resources such as solar arrays,
wind generators, fuel cells, and so forth has been concretely
attempted. In this case, a multiple-input dcdc converter is
useful to combine the several input power sources and to
supply the regulated output voltage for the load from the
power sources. This paper proposes the new boost type two
input dcdc converter, in which a solar array and a
commercial ac line are exploited as two input power sources
and are combined by two input windings of the energy-storage
reactor. Its operational characteristics and maximum power
point is tracked and verified through matlab simulink.

Keywords Solar Array, AC power supply, boost converter,

maximum power point, and energy storage reactor.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, the clean electric power generation systems

have attracted a great deal of social attention to exploit the
clean-energy resources such as solar arrays, wind generators,
fuel cells, and so forth. In the future, it is necessarily required
to use these systems in combination with the solar-cell power
supply for the construction of energy-saving and cleanenergy systems. From the view point mentioned above, this
paper proposes a converter in which a solar array and a
commercial ac line are exploited as two input power sources
and are combined by two input windings of the energy
storage reactor[1]. Also, the phase shift operation of the main
power switches in two input circuits has been adopted so that
these main power switches are driven alternately with a
phase difference of 180 to realize the soft-switching
operation of these switches and to increase the power
efficiency of the power supply system [1], [2]. A new
optimum operating point tracker of the solar array is
proposed, in which inexpensive p-n junction diodes are used
to generate the reference voltage of the operating point of the
solar array and the comparatively high degree of the solararray optimum point tracking performance is obtained [2]. At
high frequencies, the PWM switched mode converters
experience high switching losses, reduced reliability and
electromagnetic interference.

978-1-4673-6150-7/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

II.

POWER SUPPLY SYSTEM

A. Main circuit configuration

Fig. 1 shows the circuit configuration of the novel solarcell power supply system using a two input dc-dc converter.
The input side is divided into two main blocks; one is solararray block referred to as CONV.1 and the other is the
commercial ac-line power source block referred to as
CONV.2. CONV.1 consists of a solar-cell module, an
inverse current blocking diode D1, a voltage smoothing
capacitor, the main power switch S1, and one input winding
of the energy- storage reactor T. CONV.2 consists of a
commercial ac-line voltage source bridge rectifier, main
power switch S2, and another input winding of T. The output
side is composed of one output winding of T, a rectifier, a
voltage smoothing capacitor, and a load. The main problem
in using conventional dc-dc converters is the switching loss.
If zero voltage switching can be realized, this loss can be
reduced and hence the efficiency of the power supply system
can be increased. Soft switching operation can suppress
electromagnetic interference and noise. So if a converter
with zero voltage switching can replace the existing one, the
above mentioned problems can be resolved.

Fig.1. Circuit Configuration of the Solar Power Supply

System Using DC-DC Converters

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