Comparative study of MPPT algorithms for space applications

Details

Supervisors

Bekemans, Marc

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil électromécanicien, à finalité spécialisée: mécatronique

Abstract

This thesis aims at confronting several algorithms of maximum power point tracking and their digital implementation on a radiation hardened micro-processor. Extracting the maximum of the power received by the sun is essential during a satellite mission. This task was usually done in analog (with discrete electronic components), but in the last few years digital methods have been getting more and more popular. A review of some of the most popular methods allowed to select three algorithms: Perturb and Observe, Incremental Conductance and Three Percent. These methods will be implemented on a radiation hardened micro-processor in order to study their behavior. Static tests identified their behaviour in regime while dynamic tests focused on their performance in a rapidly changing environment such that a satellite could experience during flight. One of the key learning of this paper is that the digital implementation implies some constraints that were not present in an analog implementation. Among these, the discretization restricts the available power to be extracted.