Matching of separately excited dc motors to photovoltaic generators for maximum power output

This paper addresses the matching of separately excited de motors to photovoltaic generators (PVG) for maximum power output. The de motor is used to drive a centrifugal water pump. A PVG is a nonlinear device having insolation dependent I-V (current-voltage) characteristic, and hence a natural mismatch exists between the motor loads and the PVG. Therefore, considering the high initial cost of PVG, it is of vital importance to develop an appropriate matching process, to utilize PVG efficiently. In this article a procedure is developed to express the field current of the motor directly in terms of the maximum power point current and voltage of the PVG. It is shown that by adjusting the field current according to the developed relation, the motor is forced to follow the maximum power trajectory of the PVG, i.e. the input power of the motor is always equal to the maximum output power of the PVG at any available solar insolation. The effect of temperature on the I-V characteristic of the PVG is neglected at this stage. Finally a general expression is proposed relating the optimum field current directly to the available insolation level, which may be used as base for best matching. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.