Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) of Partially Shaded Photovoltaic Cells: A Technical Review

The world’s energy supply has been under a tremendous pressure due to the rapid depletion of fossil resources, energy
security and reliability, environmental sustainability and the ever-increasing modern living sophistication. The issue of
persistent hikes in oil prices, climate threats and soaring energy demand has diverted the global interest to exploiting and
investing in renewable types of energy (RE), solar energy in particular. A photovoltaic (PV) system is easy to install, has
no moving parts, is almost free of maintenance, has maximum reliability, reduced vulnerability to power loss and is
expandable. Regardless of these advantages, PV energy costs considerably higher than fossil fuels. This is due to its lower
efficiency and higher costs. An expansive study has been carried out for PV fabrication, but it is equally important to extract the maximum power by enhancing the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) capability. The review covers the
detailed partial shading condition (PSC) modelling and the various MPPT techniques and algorithms employed. It
describes how to extract the maximum output power under continuous varying irradiation conditions in large PV arrays to make the technology commercially viable.
Keywords: renewable energy; photovoltaic; maximum