Design and Development of DC-DC Converters Based on IoT Systems for Photovoltaic Applications in Egypt

Renewable energy sources are naturally pollution-free, and solar energy meets the world's energy demand. Photovoltaic (PV) systems are used to harvest solar energy, where a power converter is needed to regulate and control the harvested solar power and achieve the required output voltage for various applications. In this paper, four different DC-DC converters commonly used in research and industry are designed and developed to provide the required voltage of the PV systems, which are Buck, Synchronous Buck, Single-Ended Primary Inductor Converter (SEPIC), and Flyback converters. These DC-DC converters are modeled, simulated, and analyzed using LTspice software. The simulation studies and analysis quantify the system performance of these converters and the parameter values for the experiments. These converters are built and tested in different conditions using a standalone test bench to validate these converters for PV application systems. The test development sequences are conducted for open-loop and closed-loop systems of the power converters, where a variable power supply is used to mimic the solar panel output in the test bench. A proportional integral (PI) controller is designed to regulate the output voltage of the power converters to power load or charge the battery while solar radiation level, load, and other variables change. The Experimental test results show that the system performance profiles of these converters are different in ripple, efficiency, and other values. The maximum efficiency value achieved by the Synchronous Buck converter and less ripple output voltage is from the Flyback converter. Finally, the best proposed DC-DC converter is connected to a solar panel, where a customized Internet of Things (IoT) system is deployed into the PV system to supervise and monitor the parameters of the proposed PV system.