PIC Control Dc To Dc Converter With Variable Input Voltage And Constant Output Voltage For Photovoltaic Integration

In recent years, attention towards renewable energy such as solar power had increased dramatically due to the awareness of energy crisis. A lot of solar power application systems had been designed. One of the most important solar power applications is to deliver the power produced by solar panel to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chan, Pui Weng
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/46100/1/Chan%20Pui%20Weng_HJ.pdf
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Summary:In recent years, attention towards renewable energy such as solar power had increased dramatically due to the awareness of energy crisis. A lot of solar power application systems had been designed. One of the most important solar power applications is to deliver the power produced by solar panel to local utility grid. A constant voltage should be obtained from solar panel in the design of this application system as solar panel is producing a fluctuating voltage level which depends on irradiation and temperature level. Therefore, a DC-DC boost converter is designed to step up the fluctuating solar panel voltage to a higher constant voltage. A microcontroller based DC-DC boost converter is proposed in this design. A PIC16F877 microcontroller is used and performs a voltage-feedback technique where it continuously tracks and measures the DC-DC boost converter output voltage and compares the measured value to a reference voltage. The differential compared value is used to produce a pulse-width-modulation signal. The signal is used to control a switch in the DC-DC boost converter. Simulation results describe the performance of the proposed design. Experimental work was carried out with the converter operating in continuous conduction mode with constant 24 V output voltage, 100 W output power, 20 kHz switching frequency and supplied from solar panel voltage. The experimental results show that the proposed design is able to produce a constant 24 V with efficiency more than 72.9% at 100 W load conditions.