The increase in demand for renewable energy sources has been exponential in recent years and is mainly driven by factors that include the growth of greenhouse emissions and the decline in fossil fuel reservoirs. Photovoltaic (PV) energy, one of the more prominent renewable energy sources, produces electricity directly from sunlight, noiselessly and harmlessly to the environment. Additionally, PV energy systems are easy to install and financially supported by many governments, which has helped disseminate PV technology worldwide. The total generated power from PV installations (and the number of installations) has increased more than two-fold during the past 3 years, so that now more than 177 GW of PV-generated power is delivered per year. Researchers have been led to work on the obstacles facing PV systems from different perspectives, including: installation cost, inconsistency, and conversion and interface efficiency. The aim of this thesis is to design a high-efficiency PV inverter system configuration. The contribution to the knowledge in this thesis can be divided into two parts. The first part contains a critical analysis of different maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques. The second part provides a detailed design of the inverter system, which consists of a boost converter and a low-frequency H-bridge. Together, the three parts in this contribution present a complete high efficiency PV inverter system. The proposed system maintains high-efficiency energy delivery by reducing the number of high-frequency switches, which waste a significant amount of energy and reduce system efficiency. In order to show the superiority of the proposed configuration, a power loss analysis comparison with the other existing configurations is presented. In addition, different scenarios have been simulated with Matlab/Simulink. The results of these simulations confirm the distinction of the proposed configuration as well as its low-loss, high-efficiency characteristics which is rated at 98.8%.

<p> Integrating solar energy into the electric vehicle (EV) market alleviates the demand for</p> <p>fossil fuels used to generate the electricity used to power these vehicles. Integrated solar panels</p> <p>provide a new method of power generation for an electric vehicle, but researchers must consider</p> <p>new dependent variables such as drag in the figure of vehicle efficiency. For the solar array to be</p> <p>deemed a viable option for power generation, the solar array must generate enough energy to</p> <p>overcome the added weight and aerodynamic drag forces the solar system introduces. The thesis</p> <p>explores the application of photovoltaic modules for power generation in an EV system.</p> <p>Researchers installed an off-the-shelf solar module on the roof of an EV and investigated the</p> <p>system to explore the efficiency tradeoffs. The research sought to identify an optimized solar</p> <p>panel configuration for minimized drag based on maximized panel surface irradiance, cooling,</p> <p>and array output voltage parameters. The study utilized computational fluid dynamics modeling,</p> <p>wind tunnel testing, and full-scale track testing to analyze the system. The results of this study</p> <p>provide an optimized configuration for a Renogy RNG-100D atop a Chevrolet Bolt. The system</p> <p>was considered optimal at a tilt angle of zero degrees when in motion. The performance benefits</p> <p>due to the increased angle of the solar panel tilt were deemed insufficient in overcoming the</p> <p>aerodynamic drag forces introduced into the system while in motion.</p>