Improving the Energy Efficiency of a Photovoltaic System by Optimizing the Modulation System

ABSTRACT The efficiency of a photovoltaic conversion chain depends heavily on the essential elements constituting the chain, in particular the photovoltaic generator, the maximum power point tracking technique used, the modulation system used to generate the control signals for static converter serving as an interface, and the static converter itself. However, despite the work already carried out to popularize the use of solar energy, the optimization of the efficiency of the energy produced in a photovoltaic chain still remains to be explored. To achieve the objective of improving the efficiency of energy produced and transferred, the method consists of using the maximum power point tracking technique based on fuzzy logic to have the input signal of the DCM modulator to generate control signal of the boost converter serving as an interface between the photovoltaic generator and the load. The results of simulations carried out in the MATLAB/Simulink environment present satisfactory results of the proposed solution facing the photovoltaic system using the P&O method associated with the DCM modulator. Faced with variations in irradiance and temperature, the proposed method presents a response time around 1 ms. These simulation results highlight the role that a modulation system can play in a photovoltaic chain in terms of improving the response time, efficiency and quality of the energy produced.