This paper investigates the problem of controlling a single phase shunt active power filter (SAPF) connected to two photovoltaic arrays through a half bridge inverter involving two DC link capacitors. The control aims are threefold: ensuring a satisfactory power factor correction (PFC) at the grid-power filter connection point by compensating the harmonic and reactive currents produced by the nonlinear loads; extracting a maximum active power in the output photovoltaic arrays by applying the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) block and balancing the power exchange between the photovoltaic source and the AC power grid by regulating the DC link capacitors voltages. The problem is dealt with using a cascade nonlinear adaptive controller. The inner loop is designed using sliding mode and Lyapunov stability techniques so that to ensure a unity power factor. It also includes an adaptive observer that performs online estimation of the grid state variables which are not accessible to measurements. The outer loop is mainly constituted of filtered proportional-integral (PI) regulator, that ensures a tight regulation of the photovoltaic voltage, and the incremental conductance (IC) algorithm to meet MPPT. The resulting controller performances are formally analyzed making use of averaging theory. The theoritical analysis results are confirmed by numerical simulation within MATLAB/SimPowerSystems environment.