A novel Fast Alterable Duty (FAD) MPPT procedure for Solar PV Hybrid Vehicles

Solar PV powered Hybrid vehicles need a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) scheme which should have a capability of extremely fast tracking performance required during fast varying atmospheric conditions and shading due to the presence of trees, buildings on road sides. This paper presents a new maximum power point tracking technique for PV system with extremely fast convergence speed and restricted searching area. This will increase the tracking efficiency and overall performance of the PV based system. Assessment and comparison of the proposed MPPT algorithm are done with Perturb and Observe (P&O) method. A 250 Watt PV system was simulated and analysed. Finally, the practical results were obtained using the hardware set up made for 250 Watt PV Panel and Arduino microcontroller development board. The results show that the proposed Fast Alterable Duty (FAD) MPP Tracking technique is substantially better than P&O. The attractiveness of this scheme is the limit imposed on the range of voltage, this range of voltage is where the operating points try to remain even if the atmospheric conditions change at a fast rate. This range of voltage keeps on updating according to the real time values of panel temperature and Irradiance. Enhancement in speed is observed because of this limit imposed on voltage range and also because of the novel variable duty step size (Duty of DC-DC converter used) proposed in this article. This new maximum power point tracking technique will result in extremely fast tracking with increased efficiency.