You are on page 1of 4

The Research on the Algorithm of Maximum Power Point Tracking in PhotoVoltaic Array of Solar Car

Xiujuan Ma
School of Information Science and Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology, HIT Weihai, China maxiujuan@hitwh.edu.cn

Jiayu Wu
School of Information Science and Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology, HIT Weihai, China wujiayu2006@163.com

Yude Sun
School of Information Science and Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology, HIT Weihai, China sunyude@hitwh.edu.cn
AbstractCombined with the practical working environment of the vehicle photovoltaic cell plate on the electric vehicle, according to the engineering mathematic model of photovoltaic cell, the output characteristics is nonlinear, and the maximum power is on one point. Adopting the improved conductance increment method, the maximum power tracking rate and accuracy are enhanced. Keywords-component; solar car; the maximum power track; the conductance increment method

Shiqiang Liu
School of Automobile Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology, HIT Weihai, China shiqiangliu@yahoo.com.cn sunshine intensity S( W m 2 )and cell temperature t ( DC ), that is I = f (V , S , t ) . According to the theory of electronics, when the load is pure resistance, the actual equivalent circuit of the photovoltaic cell is as Fig.1.

solar

IL
PV

Rs

I.

INTRODUCTION

I d R I sh R V sh L I

As a new and environmental vehicle, the electric vehicle has advantages of zero discharge, low noise and wide source for energy supplement. In the solar car, the photovoltaic cell plate transforms the solar energy into electric power, then the DC power is stored in the 48V battery, and then the 48V battery supplies the power to the electric vehicle. At present, the transformation efficiency of the photovoltaic cell plate is very low, can reach only 14%, the efficiency should be improved according to its output characteristics. Because of the strong maneuverability of the electric car, the working environment of the vehicle photovoltaic cell plate changes frequently, so the algorithm of maximum power point tracking should be correspondingly improved, in order that the photovoltaic cell plate is always in a high transformation efficiency condition. II. CHARACTERISTIC OF PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL ARRAY

Figure 1. the equivalent circuit of the photovoltaic cell

The corresponding I V function is as follows:


q (V + IRs ) V + IRs I = I L I 0 exp 1 AKT Rsh

(1)

q (V + IRs ) -- the junctionThereinto: I ( I = exp 1) d 0 AKT

current of the diode (A),

I L --the photovoltaic current (A), I 0 -

- reverse saturation current(as for the photovoltaic cell, its magnitude is 104 A ),

q -- electronic charge( 1.6 1019 C ),

K -- boltzmann constant( 1.38 1023 J K ), T -- absolute


temperature( T = t + 273K ), A-- factor of the diode quality(when T = 330 K , A= 2.80 0.152 ), Rs --series resistance(low resistance,less than

The theory of the photovoltaic cell is the photovoltaic effect of semiconductor material. The photovoltaic effect is a phenomenon that the semiconductor material absorbs the solar energy, and then the electron-hole excitated by the photon separates and produces electromotive force. The I V characteristic of the photovoltaic cell changes with the

1 ), Rsh -- parallel
K ).

resistance(high resistance, its magnitude is

978-1-4244-2601-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

1379

A-V P/A

P-V

according to the change of the current during it transits from one steady-state to the other, but the perturbation and observation control may make a wrong judge.

V
Figure 2. P-V and A-V characteristics of photovoltaic cell

The relationship between the voltage and current is shown as the A-V curve in the Figure 2. When the output voltage of the photovoltaic cell array is very low, the output current changes little as the voltage changes, so the photovoltaic cell array is similar to the constant current source; when the voltage is over a critical value and keeps rising, the current will fall sharply, now the photovoltaic cell array is similar to the constant voltage source. As the output voltage keeps rising, the output power has a maximum power point. The relationship between the output power and current is shown as the P-V curve in the Figure 2. The function of the maximum power tracker is to change the equivalent load take by the photovoltaic cell array, and adjust the working point of the photovoltaic cell array, in order that the photovoltaic cell array can work on the maximum power point when the temperature and radiant intensity are both changing. III.
THE ALGORITHM OF MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING

Figure 3. the control flow chart of the conductance increment method

At present, the common maximum power point tracking methods are the constant voltage tracking method, the perturbation and observation control and the conductance increment method. The tracking accuracy of the conductance increment method is the best among them. Because it has good tracking capacity when the circumstance rapid changes, it is being widely used. Via comparing the instantaneous immittance of the photovoltaic cell array with the immittance variable quantity, it achieves the tracking of the maximum power point.

In Fig.3, U (k ) I ( k ) are the present sampling voltage value and current value of the photovoltaic cell array, U (k 1) I (k 1) are the sampling value of the voltage and the current in the last period. Supposing that the external resistance is pure resistance, and ignore the impedance of the Boost circuit, according to the relation of the impedance transformation of the Boost circuit, when the photovoltaic cell array is connecting with the Boost circuit, it is easy to obtain the equivalent input impedance of the Boost circuit is Req = (1 D )2 R . Req is the equivalent input impedance of the Boost circuit, D is dutycycle of the Boost circuit, R is the the resistance load.
I pv

dPmax dI = I +U =0 dU dU
dI I = dU U

P =U I

(2) (3) (4)

When the variable quantity of the conductivity is equal to the negative of the conductivity, the photovoltaic cell array is working on the maximum power point, that is the qualification of reaching the maximum power point. Setting same small change threshold, the conductance increment method stabilizes the photovoltaic cell array to work at the neighborhood of the maximum power point, while not waving around that point. When the circumstance changes, the conductance increment method can make out a right judge
U pv

U pv

I pv

1380

Figure 4. the topology of the Boost circuit

As tracking the maximum power point of the photovoltaic cell array, the controlling of the working voltage is finished by the Boost circuit. While the duty cycle D is larger, the input impedance of the Boost circuit is smaller, or it becomes larger. The duty cycle D of the Boost circuit can be changed to make its equivalent input impedance matching the photovoltaic output impedance, so that the maximum power output of the photovoltaic cell can be realized. And that is theoretical basis that the Boost circuit can accomplish the maximum power point tracking. In this system, the output voltage of the BOOST circuit is to charge the 48V battery. As for the working principle of the Boost circuit, it will not be stated any more. IV.
THE PROBLEM DURING THE MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING

which should be adopted, V 2 or V 1 . Designing system control parameters, it needs to base on the concrete parameter of the photovoltaic cell to confirm the variable quantity of the working current as yardstick.

dP/dU>?

If the maximum power point tracking is completed by the conductance increment method, the control of the working point voltage of the photovoltaic cell array is realized by adjusting the duty cycle D of the Boost circuit, in order to achieve the maximum power tracking. However, from Fig.2, it is obvious that the output power vary in the different area when we change the working voltage. In the area of constant current source, the sensitivity of the output current to the working voltage is very low; while in the area of the constant voltage source, the sensitivity is obvious. By way of tracking the output voltage of the maximum power of the photovoltaic cell more and more quickly and accurately, the tracking method should be improved.
Figure 5. the improved process of the conductance increment method

V.

IMPROVED METHOD

According to the different effect of the same variable quantity of the working voltage in the two different areas, the voltage step length should be properly adjusted to raise the efficiency of the maximum power tracking. With testing, the voltage on the maximum power point of the photovoltaic cell usually be used is 0.75-0.85 times of its open circuit voltage, so the proportion relation between the area of constant current source and constant voltage source is about 4:1. If the photovoltaic cell is working at the constant voltage source area, its working voltage must be higher than the voltage of the maximum power point, so it will minish the voltage, and we choose V as its voltage step length; conversely, if it is in the constant current source area, the voltage must be lower than the voltage of the maximum power point, so it will increase the voltage, by way of improve the tracking rate, 4 V is chose as its voltage step length. In order to improve the accuracy of the maximum power point tracking, when the temperature and the light intensity are definite, and the output power of the photovoltaic cell is close to the maximum power which is the most at the current condition same extent, the tracking step length will be properly lessened , in order that the maximum power point can be tracked more accurately. In fact, the moment when the light intensity suddenly changes, there is no evident change in the working voltage between the two ends of the photovoltaic cell, while the output current will suddenly change obviously. According to that characteristic, the step length can be decided

VI.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

In the system of the photovoltaic cell, the open circuit voltage is 43V, the power is 200W. The conductance increment method is adopted to control the maximum power point tracking .When it charges the 48V battery, the charging voltage is higher, the output power of the photovoltaic cell is higher. From the picture 6, in case the intensity of illumination is steady, the maximum power point is found out, and the waveform of the output voltage of the BOOST circuit is also steady.

1381

Figure 6. the current and voltage on the dc bus when the light intensity mutation

In the case that the intensity of illumination is steady, it will result in voltage fluctuation of the photovoltaic cell, when the MOSFET in the BOOST circuit is turned on and off. After applying the filtering capacitance, the fluctuation decreases. The output voltage of the photovoltaic cell is showed in the picture 7.

Figure 8. the current and voltage on the dc bus when the light intensity mutation

VII. CONCLUSION In this paper, using DSP TMS320LF2407 to be the master control chip, and the improved MPPT control method, this system has very good dynamic response and tracking accuracy, and the function of tracking the maximum power point of the photovoltaic cell, raise the efficiency of the system, make the best use of the energy. REFERENCES
[1] Yang Hai-zhu, Jin Xin-min, The tracking problem of the maximum power of the photovoltaic grid-connected inverter based on the DSP control, Solar Energy Journal, vol. 6, pp. 760-765, December 2005. Chen Xing-feng, Cao Zhi-feng and so on, The Research on the Algorithm of Maximum Power Point Tracking in photovoltaic generation, Study and Test, vol. 119, pp. 8-11, January 2005. Cui Yan, Cai Bing-huang, comparative study on the MPPT Algorithm of solar energy photovoltaic power system, Solar Energy Journal, vol. 6, pp. 535-539, June 2006. Lin Wei-xun, Modern Power Electronic Circuit,second edition.2004. Chen Xiao-gao, Fu Qing, Zhou Long-hua, Photovoltaic Grid-connected Inverter Control based on the technique of DSP phase-locked,Sun Yatsen University Journal of the Graduates,vol. 28, pp. 66-70, September 2007. Liu He-ping, Deng Li Jiang Yu and Zheng Qun-ying, DSP principle and motor control application, first edition. 2006.

Figure 7. the current and voltage on the dc bus when the light intensity mutation

In the picture 8, it shows that the variation of the duty cycle of the controller and the output voltage of the BOOST circuit when the intensity of illumination changes suddenly. From the picture, we can see that the tracking speed is very good, and then the system will run steadily.

[2]

[3]

[4] [5]

[6]

1382

You might also like