Design and Development of Maximum Power Point Tracker for Solar Module Using Microcontroller

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to design and develop a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) for solar modules using microcontroller. Maintaining a solar panel or an array of panels without an MPPT will often result in power loss, which in return requires installing more panels for the same power requirement. This will also result in premature battery failure or capacity loss. This is why the controllers of all solar power system should employ some method for maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Over the past decades many MPPT techniques have been published. In this paper, it is shown that a hardware based system has been designed using microcontroller. First based on the Perturb {&} Observe (P{&}O) MPPT algorithm, a complete code has been written and burnt into microcontroller IC. Then the whole system has been designed using buck boost converter and Hall sensor. The microcontroller takes the voltage and current output from the PV module and determines the maximum power point of the PV module. If we want to use the output power of the module to charge a battery, the MPPT will operate the PV module in its maximum power point despite the varying voltage level of the battery as well as the variation of solar radiation. The performance of the developed system has been studied and found working satisfactorily.