DOI : https://doi.org/10.18517/ijaseit.8.4.2783

Experimental Study of Solar Module & Maximum Power Point Tracking System under Controlled Temperature Conditions

Parvathy Rajendran (1), Howard Smith (2)
(1) School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
(2) Aircraft Design Group, School of Engineering, Cranfield University, MK43 0AL Cranfield, England
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How to cite (IJASEIT) :
Rajendran, Parvathy, and Howard Smith. “Experimental Study of Solar Module & Maximum Power Point Tracking System under Controlled Temperature Conditions”. International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology, vol. 8, no. 4, July 2018, pp. 1147-53, doi:10.18517/ijaseit.8.4.2783.
Citation Format :
An experimental work has been designed to evaluate the performance of solar module thoroughly. This is crucial to develop a solar module and maximum power point tracker (MPPT) system design for optimal operation of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The impact of temperature and solar irradiance intensity at various solar module angle investigated to study the effect of solar module power output of a moving UAV. Moreover, the effect of lamination on solar module and the benefit of MPPT for application of small solar-powered UAV are scrutinized. The results show that the optimum operating temperature for this solar module is approximately 45°C and solar power rises almost linearly along the solar module tilt angle. The laminated solar module has consistently loss 10% power compared to the non-laminated solar module. Besides, an additional 24% power can be obtained with the use of MPPT for small solar-powered UAV developed by Aircraft Design Group, Cranfield University.

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