Power electronics for hybrid battery–supercapacitor PV storage systems: state-of-the-art converter topologies and future trends

Abstract

The rapid expansion of photovoltaic (PV) generation has intensified the need for energy storage systems capable of mitigating intermittency, voltage fluctuations, and dynamic load variations. While lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) provide high energy density and mature deployment pathways, their lifetime is significantly affected by frequent high-power transients and ripple currents under variable PV conditions. Hybrid energy storage systems (HESS) that combine batteries with supercapacitors (SCs) exploit complementary characteristics, high energy density from batteries and high-power density from SCs used to improve dynamic performance and extend lifespan. In many systems, power electronics serve as the critical enabling interface for bidirectional energy flow, voltage regulation, and power decoupling. This paper presents a comprehensive, converter-centric review of power electronic topologies for PV-based battery–SC HESS, systematically classifying passive, active, cascaded, isolated, non-isolated, dual-active-bridge, and multiport architectures. Their performance is compared and evaluated in terms of efficiency, voltage gain, power density, controllability, scalability, and impact on battery stress, with reported prototypes achieving peak efficiencies in the 95–98% range. Emerging trends, including wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor adoption, soft-switching operation, modular multiport integration, and predictive data-driven control, are identified as key enablers for next-generation high-efficiency and reliability-optimized PV–HESS systems.