A novel converter using MPPT algorithm and acceleration factor for standalone PV system.

Solar power is an excellent alternative to existing power sources; standalone PV systems demonstrate its importance. PV panels are the energy source for connected loads, with storage systems or batteries necessary due to solar insolation's intermittency. The present investigation uses a novel high-efficiency DC-DC converter to perform the maximum power point tracking (MPPT). This converter enables the connection of solar panels in series or parallel because it can step up or step down the PV voltage according to the DC link voltage. A bidirectional DC-DC converter is also used at the load side to maintain DC link voltage and charge/discharge the batteries. The second part of the paper discusses a modified Perturb and Observe (P &O) MPPT algorithm, which is vital in tapping the maximum power from PV panels. A fast solar MPPT is desired to track the operating point, which can be served by adding an acceleration factor to the existing P &O (hill climbing) solar MPPT algorithm. With the inclusion of the proposed converter and modification in P &O algorithm, the obtained system's efficiency is approximately 96% and tracking time reduced from 7 sec to 3.7 sec. The detailed analysis of component efficiency provides valuable insights into the performance of the system. A comprehensive simulation and hardware results obtained for various irradiation (Ropp, sine, step, ramp, less, no, etc.), temperature, loads, and acceleration factors are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]