Quantitative Evaluation of Different Voltage Lift Techniques in DC-DC Converters for Renewable Energy Systems

Due to the various permutation of different voltage lift techniques (VLTs), a plethora of non-isolated boost converters are proposed over the past few years. Therefore, the qualitative review papers classify these converters according to VLTs and summarize the advantages, disadvantages, and suitable applications of these converters. However, the quantitative comparison of different performance indicators under a specific condition is missing. While the review papers with quantitative evaluation find the optimal topological structure in the specific VLTs through the comparative evaluation of finite and typical topologies. Limited by the workload, the typical topologies and specific VLTs can not cover all the potential superior topologies and VLTs respectively. In this article, the main VLTs and associated classic step-up converters are chosen to compare in terms of voltage gain, voltage stress, relative cost, power density, and efficiency. These techniques include cascaded/stacked, multilevel, interleaved, Z-Source, switched inductor/ capacitor, and coupled-inductor. Hence, the VLT with a more outstanding and balanced performance for the renewable energy systems is disclosed.