Design and dimensioning of desalination mobile unit and optimization of electrical energy with MPPT algorithms

Because of the critical situation of water in the world and the high demand for fossil energy for its treatment, we have proposed a mobile desalination unit based on solar energy. This unit is powered by photovoltaic (PV) panels to supply electrical equipment. PV panels are characterized by a single Maximum Power Point (MPP), related to climatic conditions such as temperature and irradiation. For each change in weather conditions, the MPP changes. Thus, many Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms was developed. The objective of this paper is the design and dimensioning of mobile desalination unit for brackish water and the optimization of the energy produced by the PV panels using two different MPPT algorithms (Perturb and Observe (P&O) and the Incremental Conductance (INC). The proposed system is modeled under Matlab I Simulink environment. It consists of PV array, batteries, load and DCIDC Buck converter controlled by the MPPT regulator to extract the maximum power of the PV array. A comparison between the two algorithms will be made under different climatic conditions.