MPPT techniques for PV Systems: Energetic and cost comparison

In the future solar energy will be very important energy source. More than 45% of necessary energy in the world will be generated by photovoltaic array. Therefore it is necessary to concentrate our forces in order to reduce the application costs and to increment their performances. In order to reach this last aspect, it is important to note that the output characteristic of a photovoltaic array is nonlinear and changes with solar irradiation and the cellpsilas temperature. Therefore a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique is needed to draw peak power from the solar array in order to maximize the produced energy. This paper presents a comparative study of ten widely-adopted MPPT algorithms; their performance is evaluated using the simulation tool Simulinkreg. In particular, this study compares the behaviors of each technique in presence of solar irradiation variations.