Low-cost charge collector of photovoltaic power conditioning system based dynamic DC/DC topology

The development of battery-buffered photovoltaic (PV) power conditioning systems (PCSs) is challenged by its cost/W. It compels the users to optimise the system's configuration in order to maximise the power generation. An alternative solution to this problem based on a charge collector (CC), which has the ability of maximising the charge collection of battery is shown here. The design of the CC is derived from the linear approximation model resolving prior probability distribution and dynamic DC/DC topology with micro-controller to meet the low-cost application. A simulation system has been made and analysed to verify the better performances of the CC over the traditional ones, and an empirical PV PCS example based on the laboratory prototype has been conducted to highlight the CC's natures. Results from the demonstrations, including LED lighting projections of PV PCS, show that the proposed low-cost CC with 4 ms settling time has about more than 20% efficiency and less than 50% sensitivity to system's parameters compared with the simple controller.