The growing demand for energy and environmental concerns have attracted attention to renewable energy sources. In photovoltaic and fuel cell power generation systems, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is required to achieve high efficiency. This article proposes an MPPT methodology, exploring the characteristics of an interleaved boost converter with switching cell and switching frequency modulation, enabling the operation without current sensors and with only one voltage sensor. In this converter, the input current is proportional to the input voltage and the switching period, making it a voltage follower, with the advantage of self-balancing current and no output voltage distortion in the input current. This article presents comparisons with other techniques, the mathematical analysis with the nonidealities included, the proposed MPPT principle of operation, and numerous experimental evaluations. The converter is analyzed for both single and combined variations in the irradiance and the temperature, ranging from 0 to 1000 W/m ² and from 0 to 85 °C, with fabricated and real measured scenarios, resulting in a stable operation, high efficiency, and fast response. The MPPT mean efficiency, when evaluated with measured irradiance and temperature variations representing a complete operational day, is 99.30%. The converter has a maximum efficiency of 97.80%.

The growing environmental impact and rising emission of greenhouse gases have accelerated the research toward renewable energy sources and electric vehicles since one of the main sources of pollution is the CO₂ emissions produced by conventional combustion vehicles. This article presents the analysis of the energy balance between a photovoltaic carport with 4.89 kWp installed capacity and an EV, model Renault Fluence ZE DYN, driven in real conditions. The driving tests were performed during the winter season in the city of Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná, Brazil, with approximately 1.7 million inhabitants and 1.1 million vehicles. During the test period, we attempt to reproduce the citizen’s daily routes through the city, presenting an average consumption of 15.75 kWh/100 km. The carport PV module’s energy generation and in-plane incident irradiation were acquired to calculate the performance ratio, making a comparison after cleaning maintenance possible. The solar carport system has 4.89 kWp and has generated an average of 465.37 kWh during its 24 months of operation. The analysis scenarios consist of replacing part of the city’s combustion vehicle fleet with the EVs (the same as used in the study) and thus determining how many replicas of the presented photovoltaic systems might be needed, as well as the area required for the installations. In a simulation with 15% of the fleet’s replacement, it would be necessary to generate 17,151.8 MWh, which requires the construction of 36,856 carports, covering an area of approximately 1,105,685 m². Finally, an economic comparison between an internal combustion vehicle and the EV determined that the expenditures involving electric energy to charge the batteries are 3.3 times lower than buying gasoline, assuming the same driving routines.

This study introduces a new modified high-gain interleaved boost–flyback converter with pulse frequency modulation. In the proposed converter, a four-winding coupled inductor and a switching cell are utilized to achieve high voltage gain without requiring a large turn ratio. It presents soft commutation for a wide frequency range, the shared ground connection between source and load, continuous input current with low ripple, and low current oscillation even for cases with low-frequency output voltage ripple. These features make the proposed converter suitable for low-input voltage applications that require a high step-up gain, such as renewable energy systems. The proposed converter is analyzed in steady-state to provide the detailed principle of operation and characteristics, a static gain comparison, a design guide, and losses and efficiency analysis for all the components. Finally, experimental results were obtained from a 450-W prototype with an input voltage of 60/65 V, generating an output voltage of 480 V. The efficiency at peak power is 95.7%.

Keywords: Diffuse Irradiation; estimate; global irradiation; solar energy

Keywords: Photovoltaic solar energy; grid-connected photovoltaic system; estimation of the photovoltaic cell temperature