Abstract:
Photovoltaic power generation system implements an effective utilization of solar energy, but has very low conversion efficiency. The major problem in solar photo-voltaic (SPV) system is to maintain the DC output power from the panel as constant. Irradiation and temperature are the two factors, which will change the output power of the panel. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to regulate the photovoltaic array output. MPPT controller typically consists of DC-DC converter with some duty cycle finding controller to maintain the output power as constant. The power can be stored in battery and then utilized for the powering the DC and AC load through inverter. In this project the dual buck converter has been proposed to track the maximum operating point of the Solar PV. The switching losses have been reduced and converter efficiency is improved by using dual buck converter. The modified perturb & observe (MPO) algorithm is used to provide suitable duty cycle to the dual buck converter. The dual buck converter will provide the battery bank a large energy capacity, to run at 9V, and a large output current to handle high power loads. Buck converters are used in controlling the charging current supplied to the battery based on the power obtained from the PV system. The applications of this converter are hybrid electric vehicles, renewable energy conversion system.

Keywords: Photovoltaic (PV) system, dual buck converter, MPPT, Battery Charger, MATLAB