Soft Switching Buck Converter for Battery Charging With MPPT

Photovoltaic power generation system implements an effective utilization of solar energy, but generally has very low conversion efficiency. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to maximize the photovoltaic array output power, irrespective of the temperature and irradiation conditions and of the load electrical characteristics. A MPPT system has been developed, consisting of a soft switching Buck-type dc/dc converter. It overcomes the problem of mismatch between the solar arrays and the given load. In order to improve the efficiency of energy conversion for a photovoltaic (PV) system, this paper develops a soft-switching approach with MPPT for rechargeable batteries. By inserting an auxiliary switch in series with a resonant capacitor, the proposed topology can obtain a soft-switching buck dc–dc converter for battery charger and significantly decrease the switching losses in active power switches. The proposed soft switching buck converter for battery charger with MPPT has a straight forward structure, low cost, easy control, and high efficiency. In this paper, we have analyzed the operational principles of the adopted soft-switching buck converter, and it is designed for PV generation system with MPPT. Simulation results are presented.