Accelerating the deployment of Photovoltaic (PV) systems is a key contributing factor in achieving climate neutrality. Even though solar power is one of the cheapest energy sources and its deployment is growing rapidly around the world, an even faster growth is required to achieve existing climate goals. Besides the role that finance and permitting can play as enablers or barriers to this, the key elements to enable fast PV deployment are the use of education, and science and data-driven tools to empower citizens, installers, and investors to make their decisions based on robust scientific evidence. This perspective article aims to summarize the key concepts presented and discussed during the side event at COP27 on PV resources towards climate neutrality. The article will accomplish this by highlighting two key aspects: (1) the advantages of using solar-related education and data-driven tools, and (2) showcasing the significance of education, improved data and tools, community involvement, and PV mapping in expediting the deployment of PV systems.

This study introduces an advanced DC-DC power converter with two main objectives, (i) to achieve a wide range of voltage gain, which means the converter may work over a wide range of input voltage for a fixed desired output voltage and (ii) to achieve a reduced input current ripple. Those features are highly desired in renewable energy applications, for example with photovoltaic panels and fuel cells. The proposed converter was designed in a structure in which the input voltage is composed by the difference of two inductor currents, the currents through inductors are driven with transistors that may have different duty cycle, this allows the current ripple cancellation. In addition, the structure of the converter provides a quadratic type voltage gain, which leads to a wide range of operation voltage. The converter achieves both the wire range of voltage gain and current ripple cancellation, nonetheless, the buck-boost capability is also provided. The input current ripple reduction helps preserve the renewable energy sources since they suffer deterioration when current with considerable ripple is drawn from them. Dynamic and steady-state analysis are performed along with the components sizing. Simulation and experimental results are provided to demonstrate the principle of the proposition.