Study of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) Techniques in a Solar Photovoltaic Array

Abstract

The need for renewable energy sources is on the rise because of the acute energy crisis in the world today. India plans to produce 20 Gigawatts Solar power by the year 2020, whereas we have only realized less than half a Gigawatt of our potential as of March 2010. Solar energy is a vital untapped resource in a tropical country like ours. The main hindrance for the penetration and reach of solar PV systems is their low efficiency and high capital cost. In this thesis, we examine a schematic to extract maximum obtainable solar power from a PV module and use the energy for a DC application. This project investigates in detail the concept of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) which significantly increases the efficiency of the solar photovoltaic system.