Brian Finan 09548734 Final Year Project Presentation Supervisor

Brian Finan 09548734 Final Year Project Presentation Supervisor: Prof. Ger Hurley Co Supervisor: Mr. Liam Kilmartin

*Overview *Title of project *Purpose of Maximum Power Point Tracking *Connection of Solar Arrays *Different methods of MPPT *Perturb and Observe method *Reasons for using the P&O method *Limitations of the P&O method *What the completed project will contain *Microcontroller being used to implement the algorithm *Work to be carried out

*Title of Project *Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) for Solar Power Applications with Partial Shading Keeping a solar array in the correct position so it will receive the maximum amount of solar irradiance available to produce the maximum possible power.

*Purpose of Maximum Power Point Tracking *The ‘knee’ of the curve is the most sought after position.

*Connection of Solar Arrays *Each solar cell has a current of 3 amps and a voltage of 6 volts

*Different methods of MPPT *Perturb and Observe Method Observes the array output power and determining the next action, either increasing or decreasing the array operation voltage, this is discussed in greater detail in the next slide. *Incremental Conductance Method Adjusts terminal voltage according to the maximum power point voltage by measuring changes in array current and voltage and predicting the effects of a voltage change.

*Perturb and Observe method

*Reasons for using the P&O Method *Very simple and easy to implement. *Most commonly used so information is widely available. *Provides predictive and accurate solutions to maximum power point tracking under partially shaded conditions.

*Limitations of P&O Method *Power obtained oscillates just below the Maximum Power Point in steady state operation. *Under rapidly varying irradiance & load conditions the system can track in the wrong direction. *The size of the change in operation voltage chosen determines the speed & convergence of the Maximum Power Point and the range of oscillation.

*What the completed project will contain

*Microcontroller being used to implement the Algorithm *Inexpensive, most Arduino starter kits cost between € 50 -70. *The Arduino will work on Windows, Mac and Linux. *Simple clear and open source programming environment.

*Work to be carried out *Write required code to program the Arduino microcontroller *Build the project and test it using solar cell simulator *Create PSPICE simulation models of the circuits required *Complete the required web page, poster and final report

*Questions? ?