Load-voltage-based single-sensor MPPT controller for multi-channel PV systems

Abstract

The paper presents a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) controller for a multi-channel (N-Channel) Photovoltaic (PV) solar system which requires only one voltage sensor and no current sensors. The N-channel Load Voltage Single-Sensor MPPT (LV-SS-MPPT) controller is able to track the MPP of each solar panel using only one output voltage value in the N-channels and is able to provide a very good tradeoff between size, cost, and tracking speed. Compared to a conventional N-channel MPPT system which requires N voltage sensors, N current sensors, 2N ADCs (or an ADC with 2N channels) and N MPPT controllers along with the associated conditioning circuitries, the proposed method only requires one voltage sensor, one ADC and one MPPT controller and is able to converge closer to the maximum lower power point of the load when the channels of the system are subject to non-uniform and/or mismatching conditions.