A comparison of different DC-DC converters for energy storage management in nearly-Zero Energy Buildings

Abstract

In the recent years, there has been a notable interest towards renewable sources, energy saving and efficiency optimization, in order to reduce the damages brought by fine dust and greenhouse gases in terms of safety, health and environmental protection. In the building sector renewable sources and energy efficiency optimization are leading to a large scale employment of nearly-Zero Energy Buildings (n-ZEBs), meaning that the balance between produced and required energy is negligible. For a proper n-ZEB implementation, a power system architecture has to be accurately designed, according to the existing renewable sources, loads and storage systems. In this paper, an investigation on different topologies of DC-DC converters for energy storage management in a n-ZEB scenario is carried out, aiming at the efficiency and power density optimization. The interleaving technique is investigated as well, in order to evaluate its potential benefits according to the specific DC-DC topology. Target power level is 2 kW.