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This paper presents a maximum power point tracker method using sliding mode control for a photovoltaic module to produce and maintain the maximum power possible for a configuration of the array and the environmental variables. This is obtained using a variable structure control system to control the duty cycle of a DC-DC converter. The variable structure control system is a sliding mode control that will detect the maximum power that is available at a time and will force the PV array to work at this point. This method has the advantage that it will guarantee the maximum power output possible by the array configuration taking into considerations its dynamics parameters as temperature and solar irradiance. The procedure of designing the control law and results are presented in the paper.

This paper describes the detailed implementation of a novel tool for simulating the behavior of photovoltaic devices under variable weather conditions, in which the effect of irradiance, temperature and wind speed are considered. The tool also takes into account the effect of the thermal capacitance of photovoltaic dispositives and it is suitable to work on both long-term and transient simulations. The proposed method is easily implementable in most simulation programs. In order to achieve this, a circuit-oriented model based on electrical and thermal equations is carried out. Finally, the proposed methodology is examined by comparing simulations in SABER, PSpice and SIMULIK with experimental data.