A comparison between temperature and current sensing in photovoltaic maximum power point tracking

Maximum power point tracking algorithms, for photovoltaic modules, commonly use current and voltage sensing as a means of tracking the maximum power point (MPP). This paper experimentally compares the use of a temperature sensing in place of the current sensing for MPP tracking. It does so by implementing two commonly used current sensor algorithms (perturb and observe and incremental conductance) and temperature sensing algorithm (MPPT-temp [1]) to determine which is faster and more accurate. The paper shows, the standard deviation of the two current tracking algorithms is much greater than that of a temperature based algorithm. The temperature sensor also reduces the complexity of circuitry and is a more cost effective solution to maximum power point tracking of photovoltaic modules.