Performance Enhancement of Solar Array using MPPT through Simulation and Modelling

Globally, there is an increase in the demand for renewable energy due to depleting levels of fossil fuels and increasing carbon emission levels. Solar, Wind and Hydroelectric energy sources are 3 main sources of renewable energy. Solar is the most practical to implement within cities due to the space requirements and on-site generation. However, there are some limitations related to solar energy. The main limitations being, the availability of sun light only during daytime and the low efficiency of the solar cells (11% - 12%). There is a need to generate maximum energy whenever available. Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is one of the techniques that extracts maximum power from the Photovoltaic (PV) System. In this paper, methods for enhancement of performance of Solar Arrays through algorithms such as Perturb and Observe (P and O) and Incremental Conductance method of MPPT will be discussed. The system output has been recorded for the two methods and compared. Modelling and simulations have been carried out on Simulink.