Maximum power point tracker for a photovoltaic system

Author

Suganya, J. ; Mabel, M. Carolin

Author_Institution

Dept. of EEE, St. Xavier´´s Catholic Coll. of Eng., Nagercoil, India

fYear

2012

fDate

21-22 March 2012

Firstpage

463

Lastpage

465

Abstract

The need for renewable energy sources is on the rise because of the acute energy crisis in the world today. The main hindrance for the penetration and reach of solar PV system is its low efficiency and high capital cost. The output characteristics of photovoltaic arrays are nonlinear and change with the cell´s temperature and solar radiation. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods are used to maximize the PV array output power by tracking continuously the maximum power point. Among all MPPT methods, Perturb and Observe is the most commonly used for its simplicity and ease of implementation. A photovoltaic system has been modeled and analyzed using Matlab/Simulink software. The simulation was compared with and without MPPT. The results validate that MPPT significantly increased the efficiency and performance of the photovoltaic system compared to the system without MPPT.

Keywords

maximum power point trackers; photovoltaic power systems; power generation economics; solar cell arrays; solar power; solar radiation; MPPT method; Matlab; PV array; Simulink; cell temperature; energy crisis; maximum power point tracking; observe method; perturb method; photovoltaic array; photovoltaic system; renewable energy sources; solar PV system; solar radiation; Analytical models; Application software; Arrays; Lead; Mathematical model; Performance evaluation; Perturb & Observe(P&O); Photovoltaic (PV); maximum power point tracking(MPPT); maximum power point(MPP);

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies (ICCEET), 2012 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Kumaracoil

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0211-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICCEET.2012.6203758

Filename

6203758