A New Voltage-Multiplier-Based Power Converter Configuration Suitable for Renewable Energy Sources and Sustainability Applications

Abstract

The sustainability of new-generation energy sources has become one of the most critical challenges in recent years as renewable energy sources (RESs) rapidly replace old fossil sources. Integration between RESs and the grid should be completed through power electronics converters and optimized control techniques. RESs have many advantages, such as having increased reliability and sustainability, being environmentally friendly, and having cheaper maintenance costs and more reasonable energy prices. Photovoltaic (PV) panels are among the most popular RESs. A PV array’s generated voltage level is unsuitable for direct load or grid connection and has to be enhanced via a DC-DC boost converter. After that, an inverter should be used to change the generated DC voltage to AC voltage for the grid or loads. In order to reach higher voltage gains, different structures have been proposed in the literature, such as cascaded converters, non-isolated converters (including transformers), and positive- and negative-voltage-lift Luo converters. These converters have some disadvantages, such as including a large number of semiconductor devices and inductors, heavy and bulky structures, and the need for intermediate converters to convert DC to AC voltage and vice versa. Besides the efficiency and high DC voltage gain feature, to achieve more reliability and sustainability and a longer lifetime of the PV source, the current drawn from these sources should be as ripple-free as possible. This study considers all these details by presenting a novel DC-DC power boost converter. The steady-state analysis, simulation, and test results are presented. The most important features of the proposed converter include the lack of need for a transformer, intermediate inverter, rectifier converters, and bulky and heavy components, while still ensuring that high voltage gains and high efficiencies are possible. Simulation results showed that for duty ratios from D = 0.05 to D = 0.15 for the switch S3, the gain of the converter was 22, 35, and 70 times greater than the input voltage, respectively. The desired 200 VDC and 400 VDC voltages for the output nodes were obtained using 12 VDC as the input voltage with and without the switched-capacitor cell, respectively. A limited number of the voltages between −47 and 12 V dropped across the inductors, and a reversed voltage from −12 to −48 V was reported for the power diodes. Additionally, an efficiency close to 96.88% was obtained for the proposed converter. According to the experimental results, a voltage close to 198 VDC was obtained with a 12 VDC input voltage source without using the switched-capacitor cell. A current with a maximum of 7 A was reported for the output diode, and more than 96% efficiency was reported. The results showed that the primary source of the power losses was the semiconductors, and the switching losses made up around 69% and 88% of the total losses for the switches and diodes, respectively. The present topology has three power switches. Two of the switches are activated and deactivated simultaneously. The third switch is activated or deactivated in reverse with the other switches. The results showed that for short-duty ratios such as 0.5 for switches S1 and S2 and 0.35 for switch S3, DC voltage gains close to 35 were obtained theoretically. The generated voltage could be doubled by applying fourth and fifth power switches by making a switched-capacitor-based topology. All of these details are illustrated in this study in detail. The proposed circuit was set up and tested in a laboratory environment. The test results confirm the simulation and theoretical analysis.