MPPT of solar photovoltaic cell using perturb & observe and fuzzy logic controller algorithm for buck-boost DC-DC converter

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) power keeps changing with solar insolation(S) and ambient temperature (T) because PV cell exhibits non-linear current-voltage characteristic. So the Maximum Power Point (MPP) varies with the changing S and T. However with the advancement of power electronics converter technology, it is now possible to operate the PV power at its MPP in order to improve the overall efficiency. This paper presents maximum power point tracking (MPPT) based on Perturb & Observe (P&O) and Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) for PV with dc-dc buck boost converter for the purpose of performance evaluation and comparison analysis thereof. Both the algorithms were simulated in MATLAB-Simulink with 100W PV module (Solar Alpex Panel 1552P-3613G-166109) connected to buck-boost dc-dc converter. The results of simulation and analysis indicate that the proposed FLC algorithms provide better MPP than that of conventional P&O method. FLC algorithms significantly improve the efficiency of MPPT and provides faster responses particularly during fast changing environmental conditions besides the fact that it is simple and can be implemented with PIC Microcontroller or FPGA.