Generation of electricity from solar energy has gained worldwide acceptance due to its abundant availability and eco-friendly nature. Even though the power generated from solar looks to be attractive; its availability is subjected to variation owing to many factors such as change in irradiation, temperature, shadow etc. Hence, extraction of maximum power from solar PV using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) method was the subject of study in the recent past. Among many methods proposed, Hill Climbing and Incremental Conductance MPPT methods were popular in reaching Maximum Power under constant irradiation. However, these methods show large steady state oscillations around MPP and poor dynamic performance when subjected to change in environmental conditions. On the other hand, bio-inspired algorithms showed excellent characteristics when dealing with non-linear, non-differentiable and stochastic optimization problems without involving excessive mathematical computations. Hence, in this paper an attempt is made by applying modifications to Particle Swarm Optimization technique, with emphasis on initial value selection, for Maximum Power Point Tracking. The key features of this method include ability to track the global peak power accurately under change in environmental condition with almost zero steady state oscillations, faster dynamic response and easy implementation. Systematic evaluation has been carried out for different partial shading conditions and finally the results obtained are compared with existing methods. In addition, simulations results are validated via built-in hardware prototype. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.