MPPT for solar inverters - design

Sir,

i am a mechanical engineer and doing a project on solar inverter. from web i understood i need a MPPT device to track the maximum power point from the panel.

read some basi algorithms like hill climibing and InCond algorithms, and struck with the programming part on how to build the controller?

thanks

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: MPPT for solar inverters - design

    I am not quite sure I understand your question... As a start, from another thread from a student learning about MPPT solar charge controllers:
    Here is a thesis written by Hannes Knopf in 1999 ... its what I used as the initial understanding of what Mppt is and the characterization of solar panels and power harvest ( It's referenced in my patents )

    Mppt Thesis Hannes Knopf 1999

    You can go to the above thread and read a bit more about the basics of MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) Charge Controllers.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    Re: MPPT for solar inverters - design

    thanks sir, i will refer and revert back to you
  • SolarGeek
    SolarGeek Solar Expert Posts: 25
    Re: MPPT for solar inverters - design

    Basic MPPT isn't rocket science. Some companies (and individuals) would you like you to believe it is, and they claim their method is best, but it's really just a simple control system. We electrical engineers all had to take classes on control systems. I would think mechanical engineers get at least some control theory? But designing a solar inverter seems more like an EE project.

    You end up with only a few variables that can be changed in the control system--such as the sampling rate, rate of change, etc. You could probably get pretty close to the right values on paper, but there's likely some benefit to being able to fine tune the values under a variety of real-world conditions.

    MPPT performance is essentially evaluated by how accurately the system finds the maximum power point and how much time does the system spend at that point. The first part is easy, the second part is also easy with clear skies and only slow changes in output as the sun moves across the sky.

    The main challenge is what does the MPPT logic do when there's brief shading on all or part of the array--a "transient" input to the system? It could be clouds passing over, birds, trees and wind making moving shadows, etc. Here there's likely some compromise between ignoring brief glitches in output versus "starting over" with finding a new operating point that might be far away from the full sun point only to have to find the old point again a second later.