Binary Search and Sectional Theory-Based Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithms for Solar Photovoltaic Systems

This paper proposes sectional theory and binary search-based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. The maximum power of the solar PV under various environmental conditions are obtained by employing these algorithms. The corresponding voltage of the maximum power is computed in every step with the proposed logic, which moves the operation point closer to the maximum power point. The proposed methods are validated using the MATLAB/SIMULINK software tool. The results are bench-marked against the conventional adaptive step-based perturb and observe method. The proposed algorithms improve the performance in terms of convergence rate and reduced steady state oscillations. The results demonstrate that the sectional theorem-based algorithms are either less accurate or has slower convergence rate while the binary search-based MPPT technique is the most efficient among the algorithms tested.