Study of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) in Solar Panels

In the world of technological advancement, conventional resources of energy (fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, gas etc. ) are at the edge of extinct. To overcome this problem, non-conventional energy sources (solar energy, wind energy, ocean thermal energy, biomass or biogas, geothermal, tidal energy etc. ) play a vital role, in which solar energy is most important energy source, which produces electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells are used to convert solar energy into unregulated electrical energy. These solar PV cells exhibit nonlinear characteristics and give very low efficiency. Therefore, it becomes essential to extract maximum power from solar PV cells using maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The power output from a PV panel depends on a few parameters, such as the irradiation received by the panel, voltage, panel temperature, and so forth. The power output also varies continuously throughout the day as the conditions affecting it change. In recent years, a large number of techniques have been purposed for tracking the maximum power point (MPP). Maximum power point tracking is used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to maximize the photovoltaic array output power, irrespective of the temperature and radiation conditions and of the load electrical characteristics. The PV array is modeled using basic circuit equations. Its voltage-current characteristics are simulated with different conditions. The algorithms utilized for MPPT are generalized algorithms and are easy to model or use as a code. The algorithms are written in m-files of MATLAB.