Maximum Power Tracking for Photovoltaic Power Systems

The electric power supplied by a photovoltaic power generation system depends on the solar radiation and temperature. Designing efficient PV systems heavily emphasizes to track the maximum power operating point. This work develops a novel three-point weight comparison method that avoids the oscillation problem of the perturbation and observation algorithm which is often employed to track the maximum power point. Furthermore, a low cost control unit is developed, based on a single chip to adjust the output voltage of the solar cell array. Finally, experimental results confirm the superior performance of the proposed method.