Comparison between maximum power point tracking algorithms for dc/dc power converters

During last period, the energy harvested from solar power cells have arisen exponentially, being every day more important, because it is a clean energy presented in almost all over the globe. However, in order to track the maximum power point to maximize the drained energy, different algorithms are implemented to impose certain current and voltage at the solar module output. The maximum power point depends upon the solar irradiance, the temperature and the angle between the solar irradiation and the solar modules normal vector. This paper presents an analysis of three different methods to track the maximum point variations: (1) the Perturbation and Observation (P&O) algorithm; (2) and improvement of the P&O with variable step; (3) the Incremental Conductance method. To corroborate the results of this work, simulations are performed on PSim® 9.0.3 under variations on the irradiance, temperature to show the feasibility of every algorithm.