Effects of Inductor Current Ripple on the Performance of MPPT Using Boost Converter

With solar power and other renewables set to take over the market in the coming decades, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) will be essential to optimizing power output. One underserved topic of research is inductor current ripple’s effect on MPPT algorithm performance. This study uses a boost converter topology to test the performance of constant duty cycle Perturb and Observe, Incremental Conductance and Constant Voltage PID algorithms. Inductor current ripple is controlled solely by changing inductance. This study concluded that all three algorithms were quite robust and affected very little over an inductor current ripple factor range of 20% to 40%. One novel finding was increased duty cycle oscillations when the MPPT update, and sample speed was faster than the boost converter response.