An Efficient Partial Power Processing DC/DC Converter for Distributed PV Architectures

In this paper, a dc/dc power converter for distributed photovoltaic (PV) plant architectures is presented. The proposed converter has the advantages of simplicity, high efficiency, and low cost. High efficiency is achieved by having a portion of the input PV power directly fed forward to the output without being processed by the converter. The operation of this converter allows for a simplified maximum power point tracker design using fewer measurements. The stability analysis of the distributed PV system comprised of the proposed dc/dc converters confirms the stable operation even with a large number of deployed converters. The experimental results show a composite weighted efficiency of 98.22% with very high maximum power point tracking efficiency.