Critical Factors Affecting Efficiency of Maximum Power Point Tracking in Solar Cells

Abstract

A photovoltaic cell produces electrical energy directly from visible light. However, their efficiency is fairly low. So, the solar cell costs expensive as compared to other energy resources products. Various factors affect solar cell efficiency. This paper presents the most important factors that affecting efficiency of solar cells. These effects are cell temperature, MPPT (maximum power point tracking) and energy conversion efficiency. The changing of these factors improves solar cell efficiency for more reliable applications. There is a large energy demand due to industrial development and population growth especially in India. The main challenge in replacing conventional energy sources with newer and more environmentally friendly alternatives, such as solar and wind energy, is how to capture the maximum energy and deliver the maximum power at a minimum cost for a given load. The output power of photovoltaic cells or solar panels has nonlinear characteristics and these are also affected by temperature, light intensity and load.

Design of PV Solar Energy Generator using MPPT Technique to Control Single Input/Multiple Outputs (DC-DC) Converter

“…To increase the efficiency of PV module, it is important to operate PV energy generate system close to MPP. The output power is always variations according to atmospheric temperature and solar radiation, then, the MPPT controller with DC-DC Converter is used for transferring maximum power from the solar PV module to the load [5]. The maximum output power can be calculated as [15]: ܲ = ܸ ‫ܫ‬ … (16) The perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm is used for achieve the maximum output power.…”

“…Matlab dialogue box from simulink block Libraries is used for simulation. P. Srivastava [5] examined the factors which affect the efficiency of solar cells. These factors are energy conversion, cell temperature, Maximum Power Point Tracking for solar cell.…”