Switched inductor (SL) step-up dc-dc converters can be used for high voltage gain applications such as in PV systems. In this paper, a study of a $N$-cell high voltage gain boost dc-dc converter performing maximum power point tracking from a PV source is presented. First, the time domain dynamic model is derived. Then, the linearized $s-$ domain model is then obtained and then validated by comparing the results obtained from it and from the exact switched model for the particular case of $N=4$. It is obtained that contrarily to the conventional canonical boost converter, the $N-$cell switched inductor converter presents a stable zero in the duty-cycle-to-PV-voltage transfer function which can be considered as an advantage to design fast voltage-based MPPT control having the same response speed that corresponds to current mode control. Using the resulting control-to-output transfer function, a fast voltage-based MPPT controller is designed. Finally, numerical simulation are used to evaluate the performances of the converter when used in PV applications under different weather conditions.