Design analysis and implementation of MPPT based controlling mechanism for improving the efficiency of solar Photovoltaic based operated system

Abstract

In recent years the attention towards utilization of renewable sources of energy has been increased drastically. Solar energy is one of the important renewable sources of energy since it is clean, pollution free and inexhaustible. Though the initial installation cost is high the maintenance cost is considerable less. The output Power of Photovoltaic array always changes with weather conditions i.e., solar irradiation and atmospheric temperature. The energy that is being absorbed by photovoltaic cells is not being completely utilized because of irradiance effects. Hence Maximum power point tracking techniques(MPPT) are employed in photovoltaic systems to utilize the energy that is absorbed. These techniques vary in many aspects as range of effectiveness, hardware, sensor required, and cost. This paper presents a comparison analysis of existing MPPT techniques and then an optimal controller is designed and implemented which has a better performance in achieving high efficiency. In designing the controller circuit the algorithm that has proved the best basing on simulation results has been adopted for designing the controller circuit. The entire simulation was carried out using Matlab simulink tool. The model includes accepting the input from the available source by considering a step variation in the input conditions, a physical to simulink converter circuit, a DC-DC converter circuit with designed parameters according to the load considered and a controller circuit. Other technique of improving efficiency that is by rotating the panel to track the energy under shaded and unshaded conditions has been implemented and the real time model is presented.