Subpanel level time-sharing Maximum Power Point Tracking system with self-adaptively adjusted control strategy

Abstract

The Distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking (DMPPT) has been revealed to be a promising technique allowing the increase of efficiency and reliability of Photovoltaic (PV) systems. To further eliminate the mismatch between the strings inside PV panels, the subpanel level DMPPT technique is proposed. However, such a system has higher cost than panel level solution because each cell string inside the panel must be equipped with an individual DC-DC converter and a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) controller. To solve this problem, a subpanel level time-sharing MPPT control is proposed in this paper. Moreover, the subpanel level time-sharing MPPT control is improved by making the enable signal self-adaptively adjusted to achieve the full utilization of MPPT controller and fast reactions to the environmental changes.