Ultra-High Gain DC–DC Converter for Low-Voltage Renewable Energy Harvesting

Abstract

Renewable energy sources operate at low voltages (Photovoltaic (PV) cells, thermoelectric generators (TEGs), and fuel cells) and they can transmit power to three types of consumer units (included): High Voltage, Medium Voltage, and Low Voltage. This paper demonstrates a high gain DC to DC converter that will utilize low input voltages to produce high output voltages to power renewable energy harvesting systems efficiently. The proposed topology is a combination of the inductance energy storage and capacitor-based voltage-lift to create high voltage gain without the need to work with extreme duty cycles. Two switching modes are used to provide a detailed operating principle and then provide steady-state analysis and derivation of voltage gain. This converter shows a much higher voltage conversion ratio than more traditional boost converters and lower voltage stress on switching devices and diodes. The converter performance offered by the proposed converter is tested with MATLAB/Simulink simulations. The converter operates with a peak efficiency of about 92 per cent and the voltage gain of 16 to produce an output voltage of 48 V with an input voltage of 3 V. The findings exhibit constant operation, low ripple features as well as enhanced energy conversion efficiency. The proposed converter has a balanced balance to gain, efficiency, and component stress in comparison with the existing high-gain topologies. As such, it holds a promising future as a low-voltage renewable energy collection.