Enhancement of A Photovoltaic Inverter Efficiency Using A Shade-Tolerant MPPT

The objective of this paper is to implement experimentally a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique on the Solantro DC-PODX Platform under different operating conditions. The MPPT technique operates in two modes. The perturb and observation (P&O) MPPT algorithm functions in a local MPPT mode when PV cells receive uniform irradiance. When the PV array is likely to be partially shaded, a global MPPT (GMPPT) subroutine is called to optimize the PV system operation through finding the absolute peak. The method holds two main features, i.e., i) detecting the occurrence of partial shading on a PV panel using the measurement of the sub-strings voltage and ii) fast and reliable tracking of the true maximum power point. The experimental results confirm that the performance of the PV inverter is considerably enhanced as the partial shading condition (PSC) can be properly detected. In addition, the true peak of the PV array under different PSCs can be reliably tracked, yielding a more efficient PV energy harvest.