Hi,

I'm new to this group, I wonder if there's anyone out there who
knows anyting about dc-dc converters and or maximum power point
trackers.

I'm currently helping to design a solar powered canal boat for the
UK. It runs off 17 150W solar cells (2.55kW) driving a large lynch
motor - through a large lead acid battery bank.

We've chosen the bateries and the motor to run at 36V. However the
cells, when all connected in parallel will only produce anywhere
from 30 - 35Volts at a current of between 30 - 70Amps.

I'm giong to use some sort of maximum power point tracker to get the
most power from the cells - which will effectively fix the output
voltage of the cells.

A friend of mine mentioned that I could just fix the voltage of the
MPPT to 38V (enough to charge the 36v batteries) - but this would
get MUCH less power as it would not be at the max power point.


so my question (finally) is this:

could I use a dc-dc converter of some sort to step up the voltage of
~30v to 38v to charge the batteries with?


any advice, info, links or tales of woe much appreciated.

Murray