Establishment of the Photovoltaic Simulation System Using Mixed Programming with LabVIEW and Simulink

The purpose of this chapter is to establish a photovoltaic simulation system using mixed programming with LabVIEW and Simulink and compare the simulation results of three maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms for the photovoltaic simulation system. The Matlab/Simulink is used in this chapter to establish the component models of the proposed photovoltaic simulation systems. LabVIEW is responsible for developing the virtual control interface and connects it with Simulink to perform simulation and analysis tasks. The proposed photovoltaic simulation system is developed by combining the models of solar modules and DC-DC boost converter with the tracking algorithms of perturbation and observation (P&O), incremental conductance (INC), and hill climbing (HC), respectively. The system will be simulated and analyzed under different weather conditions and MPPT algorithms. The simulation results will be shown on the interface of LabVIEW by mixed programming method. According to the comparisons of the simulation results, it can be observed that the photovoltaic simulation system can track the maximum power accurately using the three different MPPT algorithms, respectively. The simulation results can also be successfully displayed on the LabVIEW interface. The correctness and feasibility of the proposed photovoltaic simulation system is then validated.