MPPT of Solar Using Mid-Point Tracking Method

A Maximum Power Point Tracking or Tracker (MPPT) is a high efficiency system that extracts the maximum power output from a solar cell or an array of photovoltaic (PV) cells. Normally the solar power systems efficiency is less. To improve its efficiency, solar power systems are usually equipped with the function of MPPT. The work presented in this paper concerns the designing and implementation of a photovoltaic system (PV) provided with an MPPT control. More particularly, the utilization of a buck converter for controlling photovoltaic power using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) mechanism was presented. First the photovoltaic module is analyzed using SIMULINK software. In this project the buck converter was used along with a MPPT control. The MPPT is responsible for extracting the maximum possible power from the photovoltaic and feed it to the load via the buck converter which steps down the voltage to the required magnitude. The algorithm utilized for MPPT was the three-point weighting that incorporates mid-point tracking. The system was designed and simulated in MATLAB. Both the buck converter and the solar cell are modelled using Sim- Power Systems blocks. Especially, the waveforms of MPPT and Photo voltaic have been presented.