Enhancing the Efficiency of Solar Energy Harvesting System for Wireless Sensor Network Nodes

To solve the problem of wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes’ limited battery energy, this study's goal is to provide an effective solar energy harvesting method. Due to their short battery life, WSN nodes have a significant design limitation, so it's critical to look into solutions to supply a dependable and sustainable energy source for their continuous operation. The research’s major contribution is to increase the efficiency of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, a crucial form of renewable energy that can provide an efficient energy solution for WSN nodes. The research focused on the nonlinear characteristics of solar PV cells, which can result in low efficiency, and highlighted the importance of using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) to extract the maximum power. To enhance the traditional MPPT controller’s performance, the research proposes incorporating a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller and using optimization techniques to predict optimal tuning parameters. The research integrates the mutated fire-fly algorithm (MFA) for tuning the PID controller, which showed superior performance over comparative techniques. Simulation results demonstrated that our proposed solar energy harvesting system (SEHS) achieved an efficiency of 97.3%, indicating a significant improvement over existing methods. This system can provide a sustainable and reliable energy source for WSN nodes, which are limited by their battery life and require efficient energy solutions for long-term operation.