Impact of solar radiation on the output power of moving photovoltaic (PV) installations

This paper investigates the impact of the solar radiation level on the available output power of moving photovoltaic (PV) installation with the help of PV simulation models. For moving PV installations, for example on top of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs), the sampling rate was 50 samples per second. We analyse the changes in the amount of solar radiation that can influence the control of the operating voltage of photovoltaics within maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms. We present recommendations for the sampling rate of environmental data as well as for the update frequency of vital parameters of different MPPT techniques for controlling moving PV installations. In addition, we show how the sampling rate of environmental data influences the test criteria for MPPT algorithms.