Renewable Energy Sources (RES) showed enormous growth in the last few years. In comparison with the other RES, solar power has become the most feasible source because of its unique properties such as clean, noiseless, eco-friendly nature, etc. During the extraction of electric power, the DC–DC converters were given the prominent interest because of their extensive use in various applications. Photovoltaic (PV) systems generally suffer from less energy conversion efficiency along with improper stability and intermittent properties. Hence, there is a necessity of the Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm to ensure the maximum power available that can be harnessed from the solar PV. In this paper, the most important features of the DC/DC converters along with the MPPT techniques are reviewed and analyzed. A detailed comprehensive analysis is made on different converter topologies of both non-isolated and isolated DC/DC converters. Then, the modulation strategies, comparative performance evaluation are addressed systematically. At the end, recent advances and future trends are described briefly and considered for the next-generation converter’s design and applications. This review work will provide a useful structure and reference point on the DC/DC converters for researchers and designers working in the field of solar PV applications.

This paper presents a Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) fast charger with a Lithium-Ion Battery (LIB) and Super-Capacitor (SC). The LEV fast charger consists of an AC/DC rectifier and LLC (Inductor-Inductor-Capacitor) resonant Full bridge converter. The LLC resonant converter has high-efficiency and low switching loss because of Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS). So, it is used widely in the industry. In general, the fast charger algorithm uses the Constant Current (CC) mode and Constant Voltage (CV). The CC mode starts at first and then the CV mode finishes. However, there is a big control value gap between the CC mode and CV mode. Therefore, when changing from CC to CV, the transient state occurs. To compensate for the transient state, we propose a new control algorithm. By means of this algorithm, we can achieve a higher level of safety and stability. The fast charger with LIB of 800 Wh and SC of 50 Wh is analyzed and verified, and we obtain a maximum efficiency of 96.4%. The discussions are validated using the LLC resonant full bridge converter prototype at the laboratory level.

In sustainable energy applications, standalone solar power systems are mostly preferred for self-powered energy zones. In all standalone renewable power systems, batteries are still preferred as the common energy storage device. On the other hand, batteries are not applicable for high peak power demand applications because of their low power density. A supercapacitor is a preferable high-power density energy storage device for high peak power applications. A 2 kW, 50 kHz digital control dual active bridge isolated bi-directional dc-dc converter (DAB-IBDC) was developed for interfacing the supercapacitor bank in standalone solar power system. This paper proposes a blended SPS-ESPS digital control algorithm for a DAB-IBDC converter instead of using a traditional single-phase shift (SPS) control algorithm, which is commonly used for large input to output voltage varying applications. This proposed blended SPS-ESPS control algorithm achieved high power conversion efficiency during a large input to output voltage variation, over a traditional phase shift control algorithm by reducing the back-power flow and current stress in a circuit. This system also achieved maximum power point for solar modules and enhanced rapid charging-discharging for a supercapacitor bank. Both SPS and the blended SPS-ESPS control algorithms were verified experimentally using 2 kW DAB-IBDC topology implemented with standalone power system that combination of 2000 W input solar module and 158 Wh supercapacitor bank.

Recently, 3 kW residential PV (Photovoltaic) junction boxes have mainly been installed on the roof or outer wall of building. Wired and wireless monitoring systems are being implemented by RS-485 and WIFI/IoT. However, conventional monitoring systems have a communication limitation according to the distance and environment. It cannot receive any information when a failure of the PV junction box occurs. Therefore, there is a need for a strategy to determine whether the fuse and diode in the PV junction box are faulty through voltage and current sensors. In this paper, we propose a novel strategy for monitoring PV junction boxes, based on LoRa (Long Range). The TTGO LoRa32 V2.0 module with LoRa and various input and output ports is utilized. The wireless TX module transmits various data collected from the PV junction box to the RX module in real time. In addition, the RX module displays the received data on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen so that the user can intuitively identify it, and the data is recorded on the internal storage device or database in the web server. The manufactured PV junction box monitoring system was tested under a 3 kW PV system. Additionally, communication reception has stable signal intensity overall, both indoors and outdoors. In particular, it shows excellent characteristics in maintaining RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) > −99 dBm and PER (Packet Error Rate) < 2.7%, up to a radius of 200 m, even in NLOS (Non Line-Of-Sight) environments. Although some packet loss occurred, it was confirmed that invisible communication was possible up to 300 m.

The wireless power transfer (WPT) system has attracted attention for energy transmission without physical contact. However, a WPT system has low coupling condition because of a big air gap between transmitter and receiver coils. The low coupling condition has a high leakage inductance. To overcome this problem, we design a proposed system for WPT using series-series (S-S) topology of one resonant circuit. To obtain the higher efficiency power conversion of the WPT system, it has to operate the resonant frequency in the zero phase angle (ZPA) point even under mutual coefficient and load variation. Therefore, we propose the resonant frequency tracking algorithm to operate ZPA point based on the second order generalized integrator-frequency locked loop (SOGI-FLL) method. This proposed frequency-tracking algorithm can estimate ZPA point by changing switching frequency. We can reduce the switching loss with this proposed algorithm and improve the low conversion efficiency of the WPT system. The performance of the proposed frequency-tracking algorithm is automatically verified through various coupling coefficients and the load variation.

Renewable energy needs are steadily on the rise. Bidirectional DC/DC converters are essential in charging and discharging various storage batteries, such as PV/ESS (photovoltaic/energy storage system). A dual active bridge (DAB) converter, in particular, transfers power in both directions by phase shift using a soiled state transformer (SST). To reduce switching inrush current in batteries under high voltages, a soft start-up is demonstrated during the initial switching operation. When a supercapacitor (SC) is used as a battery, the reverse power caused by the inrush current appears under high voltage at the DC-link side. This causes serious electrical damage to the PV/ESS’ boost converter and inverter. To suppress peak overshoot voltage and stabilize soft start-up transients, we propose a three-step soft start-up controller and algorithm for bidirectional DAB converter implementation at virtual ESS and UPS. The step-by-step control strategy by OLDC (open loop duty control), OLPSC (open loop phase shift control), and OLFC (open loop frequency control) provides a stable soft start-up operation. In the initial stage of the OLDC, the duty ratio is gradually increased by the PWM (Pulse width modulation) signal. In the middle stage, a phase difference is seen as per the voltage of the SC. The OLPSC is performed to reduce the phase difference. In the final stage, the OLFC is performed to smoothly control the small phase difference. The overshoot or inrush current is drastically suppressed toward the DC-link and SC module. Consequently, we demonstrate a proposed controller and algorithm with prototype 5 kW DAB converter.