Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction
Now a day the demand of power is growing at an alarming rate. To meet the high demand the power station is producing more and more power. As a result the earths conventional power sources (petrol, diesel, natural gas, coal etc) are getting less day by day. The conventional fuel is also getting expensive day by day. Oil prices are all time high. Besides the environment pollution and global warming is also a side effect of the fossil fuel. The nuclear power is a solution for power crisis. But the nuclear power plants waste (nuclear waste) is a great threat to the human and the environment. There is no safe disposal of nuclear waste. Beside the nuclear fuel is expensive. The most effective, free and abundant source of power is renewable power. Renewable power can solve our power crisis. Besides it is environment friendlily. One of the renewable power sources is solar power. Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Solar power can be used either directly using photovoltaic, or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar power is abundant in the day. Free energy can be obtained from solar power. A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is a device that converts light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. The first solar cell was constructed by Charles Fritts in the 1880s. Thesolar cell is now being used widely all over the world.

Figure 1.1 Solar Pannel But the power produced by a solar cell or photovoltaic cell is low. So to use the maximum power from the solar cell we need a maximum power point tracker. It helps to use the maximum power from the solar cell. 1

Maximum power point tracker (MPPT) is a technique that uses to obtain the maximum possible power from one or more photovoltaic devices. Solar cells have a complex relationship between solar irradiation, temperature and total resistance, that reduces the output power which can be analyzed based on the I-V curve. The purpose of the MPPT is to improve the output of power of the cells for any value of load at any given environmental conditions. The MPPT uses different types of algorithm to detect the maximum power point.

Figure 1.2 An Arrangement to Extract Maximum Power From Solar Cell Using MPPT

The maximum power point tracker is used to match the load to the solar cells load. The manufactures of the solar cell makes the cell to give maximum output for a certain value of load. The value of load considered by the manufactures and the load bought by a consumer may differ. So the MPPT is used to match value of load with the manufactures consideration. The maximum power point tracker is made using a dc-dc converter (buck, boost or buck-boost), operational amplifier, gain controller etc.

1.2 Historical background

After the invention and use of solar cell, it has been observed that the solar cells output is little. So in case of solar cell, the loss across load is an important issue. So to match the load of the solar cells to the load used by the user is important and thats why load matching circuit is needed. So it le ads to the invention of the maximum power point tracker (MPPT). K.H. Hussein invented an algorithm for rapidly changing atmospheric conditions in the year 1995. T. Esram and P.L. Chapman showed comparison of photovoltaic array maximum power point tracking techniques in the year 2007.

M. Veerachary, T. Senjyu and K. Uezato invented voltage-based maximum power point tracking control of PV system in the year 2002. T. Tafticht, K. Agbossou, M.L. Doumbia and A. Chriti invented an improved maximum power point tracking method for photovoltaic systems in the year 2008. J.A. Duffie and W.A. Beckman told about solar engineering of thermal process in the year 1980. R. Akkaya, A.A. Kulaksiz and O. Aydogdu invented DSP implementation of a PV system with GA-MLP-NN based MPPT controller supplying BLDC motor drive in the year 2007. S. Alepuz et al have interfaced renewable energy sources to the utility grid using a three-level inverter in the year 2006. G. Saravana Ilango, P. Srinivasa Rao, A. Karthikeyan and C. Nagamani invented single-stage sine-wave inverter for an autonomous operation of solar photovoltaic energy conversion system in the year 2010. J.M. Enrique, E. Durn, M. Sidrach-de-Cardona and J.M. Andjar showed theoretical assessment of the maximum power point tracking efficiency of photovoltaic facilities with different converter topologies in the year 2007. N. Femia, G. Petrone, G. Spagnolo and M. Vitelli showed optimization of perturb and observe maximum power point tracking method in the year 2005. N. Femia, G. Petrone, G. Spagnolo and M. Vitelli showed how to Increase the efficiency of P&O by converter dynamic matching in the year 2004. J. Youngseok, S. Junghun, Y. Gwonjong and C. Jaeho have improved perturbation and observation method (IP&O) of MPPT control for photovoltaic power systems in the year 2005. T. Wu, C. Chang and Y. Chen invented a fuzzy-logic-controlled single-stage converter for PVpowered lighting system applications in the year 2000. R.M. Hilloowala and A.M. Sharaf invented a rule-based fuzzy logic controller for a phase width modulation (PWM) inverter in photovoltaic energy conversion scheme in the year 1992. S. Lalounia, D. Rekioua, T. Rekioua and E. Matagne invented fuzzy logic control of standalone photovoltaic system with battery storage in the year 2009.

1.3 Literature Review

Different persons have designed maximum power point tracker (MPPT) using their own ways. S.M. Ferdous, Mahir Asif Mohammad, Farhan Nasrullah, Ahmed Mortuza Saleque, and A.Z.M.Shahriar Muttalib from Department of EEE, American International University - Bangladesh (AIUB), Dhaka, Bangladesh have made a Design and Simulation of an Open Voltage Algorithm based Maximum Power Point Tracker for Battery Charging PV System. 3

The model is given below:

Figure 1.3 Block diagram of t he solar PV system Ali Kargarnejad from the Department of Computer, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mohsen Taherbaneh from the Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) and Amir Hosein Kashefi from the Young Researchers Club, South Tehran Branch, and Islamic Azad University has designed a new fuzzy-based maximum power point tracker for a solar panel based on datasheet values. The design is given below:

Figure 1.3 MPPT System Using Fuzzy-Based MPPT Algorithm Roberto Francisco Coelho and Denizar Cruz Martins from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Electrical Engineer Department of Power Electronics Institute, Florianpolis, Brazil have designed an optimized maximum power point tracking method based on PV surface temperature measurement.

Figure 1.4 MPPT System Based on PV Surface Temperature Measurement

C. Liu, B. Wu and R. Cheung Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering of Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada have designed advanced algorithm for MPPT control of photovoltaic systems. There circuit is given below:

Figure 1.5 The photovoltaic power system for simulation

Dezso Sera, Tamas Kerekes, Remus Teodorescu and Frede Blaabjerg Aalborg University/Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg, Denmark have Improved MPPT algorithms for rapidly changing environmental conditions. 5

There circuit is given below:

Figure 1.6 Experimental laboratory setup

Jawad Ahmad and Hee-Jun Kim of World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology have designed a voltage based maximum power point tracker for low power and low cost photovoltaic applications. The designed is given below:

Figure 1.7 Circuit diagram of the proposed MPPT

1.4 Objectives of the work

The basic them of this project is the development of generalized theory of Maximum Power Point Tracking. This area has been chosen because Maximum power point trackers plays an important role as they maximize the output power of a cell as well as can minimize the overall system cost. The goal is to design a simulation model of MPPT circuit of a solar cell using different types of Dc-Dc converter. Design of this simulation model will make the tracking easier. The components used are not costly. The cost of 1 watt of solar cell is 100-120 BDT or 1-1.25 dollar. Also, using the same cell we can obtain more output by just adding the MPPT circuit, which is reducing our overall cost. We will get maximum of 12-15% of efficiency using MPPT. If we do nt use MPPT than we will get less efficiency than this.

1.5 Organization of the thesis

The maximum power point tracker is very useful but it is quite expensive. This is expensive because of the components are used are expensive. Besides the procedure to design of MPPT is difficult because usually difficult algorithms are used. Our thesis establishes a simple algorithm to design maximum power point tracker. Besides simple components for example op-amps, capacitor etc is used to construct the MPPT. This way the cost becomes less without reducing the performance. We have used Dc-Dc converters to support all ranges of load by varying the duty cycle.

1.6 Summary
The importance of a solar cell as an electricity generator is explained in this chapter. It is important to have a maximum power point tracker to extract the best out of it. There should be a simple algorithm to design MPPT circuit.