A soft switching charge controller of batteries for photovoltaic applications

Abstract

Nowadays Renewable Energy Sources (RES) became an integral part newlineof power system generation due to the depletion of conventional energy sources. newlineTo incorporate Renewable Energy Sources (RES) into the power system, power newlineconditioning stage is essential. These power conditioning stages consists of newlinesemiconductor switches which can be turned OFF and turned ON to convert the newlineavailable power into a form suitable for load. The converter size depends on the newlinesize of power electronic components such as Inductor (L) and Capacitor (C). The newlinevalue of L and C depends on the switching frequency of the converter switch newlinewhich is inversely proportional to size of L and C i.e. if frequency increases newlinevalues of L and C decreases which decreases the size of the converter and vice newlineversa. But, the high frequency switching operation can increase the switching newlineloss and noise. These switching losses are caused by hard switching i.e. sudden newlinetransition from ON to OFF state. These problems can be overcome by using soft newlineswitching. Soft switching means switching the device either at zero voltage or newlinezero current. The power loss is reduced since power dissipated is proportional to newlinevoltage and current; the switching transition is done at zero voltage or zero newlinecurrent hence ideally no power loss. The main advantages of soft switching newlineconverters are reduced converter size with high frequency and low switching newlineloss, reduced stress on devices. Most categories of soft switching converters newlinedepend on the concept of resonance. newline newline