Implementation of P&O Algorithm on FPGA for Photovoltaic Applications

In this paper, the Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm is implemented on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for tracking the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of a photovoltaic (PV) generator. The P&O algorithm has been designed using the very high-speed description language (VHDL) and implemented on Xilinx Virtex-II-Pro(xc2v1000-4fg456). The algorithm has been simulated and tested by conditioning the power produced by the PV modules installed on the rooftop of the “Hall of Technology Laboratory” at Jijel University. The main advantages of the developed MPPT are low cost, good velocity, acceptable reliability, and easy implementation. However, its main disadvantage is related to the fact that for fast changes in irradiance it may fail to track the maximum power point. The efficiency of the implemented P&O controller is about 96%.