Development of a High-Speed System Measuring a Maximum Power Point of PV Modules

This study is about a new high-speed system measuring a maximum power point (MPP) of photovoltaic (PV) modules by using the microprocessor, and the short circuit, and the capacitance for the load. Perturb and observe method is well known and common; however, by using the method, it takes a few seconds to accord a power point with the MPP, and when a solar cell has partial shade, there is possibility not to track the MPP. Therefore, it causes a mismatch power loss, which is due to mismatch between an MPP and a power point. In order to solve the problems, our system measures a V-I curve (voltage-current characteristic curve) rapidly and determines the MPP. The results of the experiments show that the system measured a V-I curve in 10 ms and determined the MPP by the accuracy of 0.5% of mismatch power loss. Therefore, the system tracks an MPP in millisecond order and improves mismatch power loss