Novel solar-cell power supply system using a multiple-input DC-DC converter

Recently, the clean electric power generation systems have attracted a great deal of social attention to exploit the clean-energy resources such as solar arrays, wind generators, fuel cells, and so forth. In this case, a multiple-input dc-dc converter is useful to combine the several input power sources and to supply the regulated output voltage for the load from the power sources. The novel solar-cell power supply system using the buck-boost-type two-input dc-dc converter is proposed, in which a solar array and a commercial ac line are employed as power sources and are combined by two input windings of the energy-storage reactor. Also, its operation principle and performance characteristics are discussed. Furthermore, the solar-cell optimum-operating-point tracker is proposed and examined. It is confirmed by the experiment that the proposed solar-cell power supply system has excellent performance characteristics.