Maximum Power Point Tracking Control of Photovoltaic Array Using Fuzzy Control

Abstract

The solar cell has an optimum operating point to be able to get maximum power. To obtain maximum power from photovoltaic array, photovoltaic power system usually requires maximum power point tracking controller. The output characteristics of solar cell are nonlinear, and these characteristics vary with load, solar insolation, cell temperature. Therefore, the tracking control of maximum power point is the complicated problem.
This paper proposes the maximum power point tracking control of photovoltaic array using fuzzy control. To obtain maximum power from photovoltaic array, the fuzzy controller only uses the output power. Therefore this control method is easy to implement to real system. Moreover, this method can track maximum power point rapidly with fuzzy inference even if the optimum operating point changes. The usefulness and validity of proposed control method are proved experimentally under constant natural solar insolation.