Energy comparison of seven MPPT techniques for PV Systems

In the future, solar energy will be a very important energy source. Several studies suppose that more than 45% of the energy in the world will be generated by photovoltaic array. Therefore it is necessary to concentrate our forces to re-duce the application costs and to increment their performance. In order to reach the last aspect, it is important to note that the output characteristic of a photovoltaic array is nonlinear and changes with solar irradiation and cell’s tem-perature. Therefore a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique is needed to maximize the produced energy. This paper presents a comparative study of seven widely-adopted MPPT algorithms; their performance is evaluated using, for all the techniques, a common device with minimum hardware variations. In particular, this study compares the behaviors of each technique in presence of solar irradiation variations.