A Glowworm Swarm Optimization-Based Maximum Power Point Tracking for Photovoltaic/Thermal Systems under Non-Uniform Solar Irradiation and Temperature Distribution

The output power of a photovoltaic (PV) system depends on the external solar irradiation and its own temperature. In order to obtain more power from the PV system, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is necessary. However, when the PV is partially shaded, there will be multiple peaks in the power-current (P-I) curve. The conventional MPPT methods may be invalid due to falling into the local peak. In addition, in a photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) system, the non-uniform temperature distribution on PV will also occur, which complicates the situation. This paper presents a MPPT method with glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) for PV in a PV/T system under non-uniform solar irradiation and temperature distribution. In order to study the performance of the proposed method, the conventional methods including the perturbation and observe algorithm (P and O), and the fractional open-circuit voltage technique (FOCVT) are compared with it in this paper. Simulation results show that the proposed method can rapidly track the real maximum power point (MPP) under different conditions, such as the gradient temperature distribution, the fast variable solar irradiation and the variable partial shading. The outcome indicates the proposed method has obvious advantages, especially the performance being superior to the conventional methods under the partial shading condition.