Non-isolated conventional DC-DC converter comparison for a photovoltaic system: A review

The output power from a photovoltaic (PV) system varies due to its high dependency on the surrounding irradiance and temperature. To overcome this, a maximum power point (MPP) tracker is used alongside a DC-DC converter to track the varying power. The purpose of the DC-DC converter is to interface the PV system to the load on the grid or a standalone system by balancing the power between them. Selection of the appropriate DC-DC converter is essential because it plays an important role in the overall performance of the PV system. In this paper, various nonisolated conventional DC-DC converter topologies are reviewed, compared, and discussed. The review and discussion of each converter are based on the recent development of converters in terms of efficiency, steady state oscillation, number of components, voltage transfer, and tracking speed. The advantages and disadvantages of the recent topologies within this scope are also highlighted in this paper. A simulation work has been performed to validate the performance of all the reviewed converters using the perturb and observe MPP tracking algorithm under different sets of irradiance and temperature. Finally, this paper also provides a selection method to select the best converter in a stand-alone PV system.