MPPT for hybrid wind, solar and thermoelectric power generation systems for off-grid applications

Renewable energy resources for electrical generation are normally free but are not continuously available due to their sporadic availability. Thus, hybrid connections of various kinds of energy are made to increase utilization of renew-able energy. This paper involves a design of a hybrid renewable energy system employing maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques. The hybrid system consists of solar PV panels, a small-scale wind turbine, and a thermoelectric generator (TEG) module. Four MPPT techniques are examined in this research. They are the incremental conductance (IC) algorithm, fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) using 25 and 35 rules, and an interval type 2 fuzzy logic con-troller (IT2FLC). Each MPPT technique is tested in the system to determine which has the best maximum power tracking, stable operation, and efficiency. All of the studied energy resources are connected to a DC linked bus. The voltage of this bus is supplied to a three-phase inverter. Inverter output voltage is regulated for balanced and unbalanced loads. The generating capacity of the designed hybrid system is 5 kW and the system is simulated using MATLAB Simulink R2017a.