FPGA-based implementation of an adaptive P&O MPPT controller for PV applications

The aim of this paper is to present a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation of an adaptive perturb and observe (P&O) maximum power point tracking controller for photovoltaic application. The implemented controller is able to adapt the perturbation period of the P&O algorithm in order to face the changing environment conditions as well the aging of the photovoltaic system. The proposed implementation allows significantly improving the timing performances and reducing the FPGA resources. A complete time/area performance analysis and the experimental results confirm the feasibility and the efficiency of the proposed controller implementation.