A Hardware Implementation of Incremental Conductance MPPT Algorithm in Photovoltaic System using Cuk Converter for Battery Charging

In today's power scenario, power generated by conventional energy sources is not enough to meet the increasing power demand. It has become necessary to utilize renewable energy sources along with conventional energy sources to full fill the increasing power demand. Solar energy is one of the readily available renewable energy source and it is non-polluting. Power that can be produced from solar photovoltaic system depends upon atmospheric conditions. However, power delivered by the system depends on loads connected to it. In order to extract maximum power from solar cell, various maximum power point tracking methods (MPPT) are used. This paper uses incremental conductance method to implement MPPT. Due to low oscillations at maximum power point this method is suitable for maximum power point tracking under various varying atmospheric conditions. A DC-DC CUK converter is selected for maximum power. This paper includes converter design, hardware results of standalone PV system with incremental conductance (INC) method.