Development of maximum power point tracking system (mppt) for solar panel

Due to the global energy crisis and environmental problems, the utilization of photovoltaic (PV) systems as an electric source has increased exponentially. It is expected that this usage trend will keep increasing in the near future too. However, the output power from the photovoltaic modules is affected by radiation intensity of the solar cells. Therefore, to exploit all power of photovoltaic panel and maximize the efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) systems, it is necessary to track the maximum power point of the input source. In the thesis, the efficiency of perturb and observe (P and O) maximum power point tracker (MPPT) has been enhanced. The efficiency improving has been achieved by ameliorating the tracking speed (transient response) and decreasing the steady state oscillation. A step-size perturbation is utilized to decrease the oscillation and minimize the reaching time of operating point to MPPT. When the operating point is far from the MPPT, the perturbation is made larger to ensure that the tracking speed is maximized. But as the operating point gets closer to the MPPT, the perturbation reduces. The algorithm proposed for maximum power point tracking system (MPPT) for solar panel has been realized on boost converter by design of electronic card having STM32 microcontroller. The card scans the gained power of PV panel over short periods to adapt the nonlinear electrical characteristics of PV panel. Extensive experimental and simulation results have shown that the proposed algorithm is effective in variable weather conditions.