Solar panel model with MPPT in Simulink - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Solar panel model with MPPT

📖 Scenario: You are working on a solar energy project. You want to model a solar panel and use a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm to find the best power output. This helps solar panels work efficiently in changing sunlight conditions.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple solar panel model in Simulink and add an MPPT block to track the maximum power point. You will create the solar panel data, set a reference voltage, implement the MPPT logic, and display the power output.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a solar panel data structure with voltage and current values

Set a reference voltage for MPPT

Implement MPPT logic to find maximum power point

Display the maximum power output

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Solar panels need to work efficiently by adjusting to sunlight changes. MPPT helps find the best power output automatically.

💼 Career

Understanding solar panel modeling and MPPT is useful for renewable energy engineers and data scientists working on energy optimization.

1

Create solar panel data

Create a variable called solar_panel as a dictionary with two keys: 'voltage' and 'current'. Set solar_panel['voltage'] to the list [10, 15, 20, 25, 30] and solar_panel['current'] to the list [5, 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3].

Simulink

# Create the solar_panel dictionary with voltage and current lists
# Your code here

Hint

Use a dictionary with keys 'voltage' and 'current'. Assign the exact lists given.

2

Set reference voltage for MPPT

Create a variable called reference_voltage and set it to 20. This will be the voltage at which MPPT tries to find maximum power.

Simulink

solar_panel = {'voltage': [10, 15, 20, 25, 30], 'current': [5, 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3]}
# Set the reference_voltage variable to 20
# Your code here

Hint

Just assign the number 20 to the variable named reference_voltage.

3

Implement MPPT logic to find maximum power

Create a variable called power that is a list of power values calculated by multiplying each voltage and current from solar_panel. Then, find the index of the voltage closest to reference_voltage and create a variable called max_power that stores the power at that index.

Simulink

solar_panel = {'voltage': [10, 15, 20, 25, 30], 'current': [5, 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3]}
reference_voltage = 20
# Calculate power list and find max_power at reference_voltage
# Your code here

Hint

Use a list comprehension to multiply voltage and current. Use min with a key function to find closest voltage index.

4

Display the maximum power output

Write a print statement to display the text "Maximum power at reference voltage:" followed by the value of max_power.

Simulink

solar_panel = {'voltage': [10, 15, 20, 25, 30], 'current': [5, 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3]}
reference_voltage = 20
power = [v * i for v, i in zip(solar_panel['voltage'], solar_panel['current'])]
index = min(range(len(solar_panel['voltage'])), key=lambda i: abs(solar_panel['voltage'][i] - reference_voltage))
max_power = power[index]
# Print the maximum power value
# Your code here

Hint

Use print("Maximum power at reference voltage:", max_power) to show the result.