A high power density DC-DC converter for distributed PV architectures

Author

Agamy, Mohammed S. ; Chi, Song ; Elasser, Ahmed ; Harfman-Todorovic, Maja ; Jiang, Yan ; Mueller, Frank ; Tao, Fengfeng

Author_Institution

School of Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Kelowna, V1Y 9W9 Canada

fYear

2012

fDate

3-8 June 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

8

Abstract

In order to maximize the solar energy harvesting capabilities, power converters for photovoltaic (PV) systems have to be designed for high efficiency, accurate maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and voltage/current performance. When many converters are used in distributed PV systems, power density also becomes an important factor since it allows for simpler system integration. In this paper, a high power density string level MPPT DC-DC converter suitable for distributed medium to large scale PV installations is presented. A simple partial power processing topology implemented exclusively with silicon carbide devices provides high efficiency and high power density. A 3.5kW, 100 kHz converter is designed and tested to verify the proposed methods.

Keywords

Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Inverters; Logic gates; Silicon; Silicon carbide; Switches; Topology; DC-DC converters; Partial power processing; Silicon carbide devices; distributed PV architectures;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), Volume 2, 2012 IEEE 38th

Conference_Location

Austin, TX, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC-Vol2.2012.6656721

Filename

6656721