Implementation of fuzzy control for energy optimization in photovoltaic system

Solar energy is currently an important alternative for electricity generation due to growing demand, shortage of fossil fuels, environmental requirements and technological advances in power electronics. Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) methods are applied to photovoltaic (PV) systems to maximize energy extraction under any environmental conditions and to control the nonlinear characteristics of its parameters. In this paper we first propose the implementation of basic MPPT techniques, such as Perturbation and Observation (P&O) and Incremental Conductance (IC), and then improvements are made in efficiency and precision of extracted power using a Fuzzy control design type Mamdani. These techniques are implemented in simulation and experimentally validated in a laboratory prototype.