High efficiency switched capacitor buck-boost converter for PV application

A switched capacitor buck-boost DC/DC converter is proposed for the parallel connected distributed photovoltaic (PV) power generation application: an uncontrolled switched capacitor resonant converter is in parallel connection with a buck-boost converter where their outputs are summed to support the load. The switched capacitor converter is operated with a fixed conversion gain whereas the buck-boost converter is controlled to do the MPPT regulation and only a small portion of energy flows through it. In order to obtain ZVS for switched capacitor circuit in the full load range, an auxiliary inductor is added. The converter's performance has been evaluated on a 240W experimental prototype. The test results show that 92.5% efficiency is achieved to generate 200V high output voltage from a 60 cells crystalline PV module with V
_mpp
=30V.