Abstract
In the case of partial shading conditions, there will be more than one maximum power point (MPP) in photovoltaic (PV) array. The traditional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods are easy to get in the local maximum power point (LMPP) and fail. Based on the standard differential evolution (DE) algorithm, the mutation strategy, scaling factor F, and cross factor CR of the algorithm are optimized. Also, the population position variance δ 2 is used to prevent falling into LMPP. Finally, the conditions for algorithm termination and restart are set. It is verified by simulation that the method has fast convergence speed, high accuracy, and can adapt well to changes in the external environment. The improved DE algorithm has a great advantage in MPPT.