AbstractThis paper presents a new maximum power point tracking control for photovoltaic (PV) panels. The control can be categorized into the Perturb and Observe (P&O) method. It utilizes instantaneous voltage ripples at PV panel output terminals caused by the switching of a chopper connected to the panel in order to identify the direction for the maximum power point (MPP). The tracking for the MPP is achieved by a feedback control of the average terminal voltage of the panel. Appropriate use of the instantaneous and the average values of the PV voltage for the separate purposes enables both the quick transient response and the good convergence with almost no ripples simultaneously. The tracking capability is verified experimentally with a 2.8‐W PV panel under a controlled experimental setup. A numerical comparison with a conventional P&O confirms that the proposed control extracts much more power from the PV panel. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 157(3): 73–80, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20255 Copyright © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.