Maximum power point tracking of a solar panel using a DC bus

Abstract

A system is designed to extract the maximum power from a solar panel using SIMULINK software. The main objective of this thesis is to track the maximum power point from a solar panel by using a DC bus and to notice the changes in the voltage, current and power of the solar panel with the change in the irradiation level. The solar panel is designed by considering the standard current and voltage conditions. A maximum power point tracking algorithm is designed in a MATLAB code and the output gives the track of the maximum power point reached by the system which is given as a feed back to the solar panel by using DC bus and extract the maximum power out of the solar panel. The DC bus used in this system acts as an infinite load which accepts the maximum ranges in order to get the maximum power. For different irradiation levels, there will be a change in the solar panel's current, power and voltage and the maximum power point as well. These changes in power and current of the solar panel with respect to the voltage are observed by simulation for different irradiation levels and the maximum power point for different conditions are tracked.