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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 4, APRIL 2013

Design, Analysis, and Implementation of Solar Power Optimizer for DC Distribution System
Shih-Ming (Orion) Chen, Student Member, IEEE, Tsorng-Juu (Peter) Liang, Member, IEEE, and Ke-Ren Hu
AbstractThis paper proposes a high step-up solar power optimizer (SPO) that efciently harvests maximum energy from a photovoltaic (PV) panel then outputs energy to a dc-microgrid. Its structure integrates coupled inductor and switched capacitor technologies to realize high step-up voltage gain. The leakage inductance energy of the coupled inductor can be recycled to reduce voltage stress and power losses. A low voltage rating and low-conduction resistance switch improves system efciency by employing the incremental conductance method for the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. Because of its high tracking accuracy, the method is widely used in the energy harvesting of PV systems. laboratory prototypes of the proposed SPO that have an input voltage range of 20 to 40 V and a maximum PV output power of 400 V/300 W are applied. The highest PV power conversion efciency is 96.7%. The maximum MPPT accuracy is 99.9%, and the full load average MPPT accuracy is 97.8%. Index TermsHigh step-up voltage gain, maximum power point tracking (MPPT), solar power optimizer (SPO).
Fig. 1. Conguration of multiple parallel SPO for a dc-microgrid system.

I. INTRODUCTION

OSSIL fuels continue to be depleted, and their use has been instrumental to climate change, a problem that grows more severe each year. A photovoltaic (PV) power generation system, which uses a renewable resource, has been extensively used in emergency facilities and in generating electricity for mass use. A conventional PV generation system is either a single- or a multistring PV array that is connected to one or several central PV inverters. Numerous series-connected PV modules are connected in the PV array to achieve the DC link voltage that is high enough to be connected to electricity through the DCAC inverter. However, the power reduction that is caused by the shadow effect is an inevitable problem in a centralized PV system. The use of a microinverter or ac module has recently been proposed for individual PV panels [1], [2]. Although this discrete PV power generation solution may partially eliminate the shadow problem, a microinverter structure constrains the

Manuscript received March 31, 2012; revised June 27, 2012; accepted August 6, 2012. Date of current version October 26, 2012. This work was supported in part by the nancial support from the Bureau of Energy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, under Project 101-D0204-2, and in part by the National Science Council of Taiwan under Project NSC 101-3313-E-006017 and Project NSC 101-2218-E-006-014. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor T. Shimizu. S.-M. (Orion) Chen and T.-J. (Peter) Liang are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Center (AOTC), Green Energy Electronics Research Center (GREERC), National ChengKung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan (e-mail: orion.chen@msa.hinet.net; tjliang@mail.ncku.edu.tw). K.-R. Hu is with the Richtek Technology Company, Hsinchu 302, Taiwan (e-mail: mimix1986@yahoo.com.tw). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPEL.2012.2213270

system energys harvesting efciency and entails high costs. A solar power optimizer (SPO) was developed as an alternative to maximize energy harvest from each individual PV module. An SPO is used as a dcdc converter with maximum power point tracking (MPPT), which increases PV panel voltage to optimum voltage levels for a dc microgrid connection or through a dcac inverter for electricity [3][6]. Fig. 1 shows a single PV panels energy, which passes through an SPO to a dc microgrid system. A 400 V dc-microgrid system was proposed as an energy-efcient distribution option for data center systems and telecommunication facilities [7]. The SPO attempts to improve the use of distributed renewable resources and lower system cost. It may also potentially improve the efciency of PV systems, has an antishadow effect, and can monitor the status of PV modules [8]. Moreover, the dc-grid voltage is regulated by bidirectional inverter and battery tank. In case of low-loading condition, the redundant energy will store into battery or through bidirectional inverter to ac grid. The maximum power point (MPP) voltage range of a single PV panel ranges from 15 to 40 V and has a power capacity of about 100 to 300 W [9]. An SPO has a high step-up converter that increases low-input voltage to a sufcient voltage level. Various step-up dcdc converter topologies include a conventional boost and yback converters [10], [11], switchedinductor converter, and switched capacitor converter [12][16], as well as a transformerless switched capacitor types [17], [18], voltage-lift types [19][21], capacitordiode voltage multipliers [22][25], and boost types that are integrated with coupled inductors [26][29]. With increasing voltage gain, recycling the leakage inductance energy of a coupled inductor will reduce the voltage stress on the active switch, which enables the coupled

0885-8993/$31.00 2012 IEEE