Comparative study of maximum power point tracking control strategies for solar PV systems

Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is becoming an increasingly important part of the world's renewable energy. In order to develop efficient technology for effective energy extraction from a solar PV system, this paper investigates and compares typical maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control strategies used in solar PV industry. This paper focuses especially on how sampling rate and time delay influence PV system performance by using different MPPT control approaches in a digital control environment, and how different MPPT techniques behave under highly dynamic and variable weather conditions. A computational experiment system is developed by using MatLab, SimPowerSystems and Opal-RT real-time simulation system for fast and accurate performance evaluations of PV arrays under high frequency switching conditions of power converters. Advantages, disadvantages, and characteristics of different MPPT techniques are studied, evaluated, and compared through extensive computational experiments.