A Novel Hybrid MPPT Technique Based on Harris Hawk Optimization (HHO) and Perturb and Observer (P&O) under Partial and Complex Partial Shading Conditions

Photovoltaic (PV) systems have been used extensively worldwide over the past few years due to the mitigation of fossils fuels; it is the best source because of its eco-friendly nature. In PV systems, the main research area concerns its performance under partial shading (PS) and complex partial shading (CPS) conditions. PV sources perform perfectly under ideal conditions, but under practical conditions, their performance depends upon many factors, including shading conditions, temperature, irradiance, and the angle of inclination, which can bring a photovoltaic or solar system into a PS or CPS condition. In these conditions, many power peaks appear, and it is hard to find the global peak among many local peaks. The ability to track the maximum power peak and maintain it to avoid fluctuations depends on the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique used in a photovoltaic system. This article is based on the implementation of a hybrid algorithm, combining Harris hawk’s optimization (HHO), a new technique which is based on natural inspiration, and a conventional perturb and observe (P&O) technique. The hybrid technique was tested under different weather conditions in MATLAB Simulink and showed less computational time, a fast convergence speed, and zero oscillations after reaching a power point’s maximum limit. A performance comparison of the hybrid technique was made with bio-inspired particle swarm optimization (PSO), adaptive cuckoo search optimization (ACS), the dragonfly algorithm (DFO), and the water cycle algorithm (WCA). The hybrid technique achieves 99.8% efficiency on average and performs very well among the rest of the competing techniques.