A novel digital MPPT control architecture for renewable system integration

Low power and energy aware design methods have been ramping on a steep curve in the 21^st century across all segments of the electronics industry. Fundamentally different approaches are still needed for maximizing energy efficiency. When traditionally performance driven computational parts are put to use in energy sensitive applications, redundant features and excessive operational speeds often result in increased cost and wasted energy. This paper describes a novel digital Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) control architecture with fast feedback loop and high resolution PWM, as an example of an application specific approach. This MPPT can be easily adopted to a variety of systems with renewable energy sources for increased system efficiency, and integrated into a low cost compact component due to its simple robust design and scalability to cheap IC technologies. It is estimated that the resulting benefit of this approach is at least an order of magnitude energy savings compared to the use of off-the-shelf controllers.