A real-time linearized maximum power point tracker for photovoltaic system

This paper proposes a novel linearized maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method for a photovoltaic system. This method involves first the linearization of the photovoltaic (PV) module and the DC-DC converter. Hence, some of the difficulty level in switching control due to highly non-linear and time-variant characteristics of PV module is removed. Further, for an efficient maximum power point tracking (MPPT) performance of the PV system, the MPPT operation can be accomplished efficiently with a simple PI-controller. The proposed linearized MPPT method has been tested using one mono-crystalline (BP350) and other multi-crystalline (SSI-M6-205) solar panels. The solar panels have been tested at varying environmental conditions like solar radiations of 200 to 1000 watt/m² and temperatures of -25 to 50°C considering various practical operating regions of the solar module. The effectiveness of the proposed linearized maximum power point tracking method has been validated by experimental results of Opal-RT.