DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A SOLAR CHARGER CONTROLLER
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ABSTRACT
Solar charge controller limits the rate at which electric current is added to or drawn from solar panel to electric batteries. It prevents overcharging and may protect against overvoltage, which can reduce battery performance or lifespan, and may pose a safety risk. It may also prevent completely draining (“deep discharging”) a battery, or perform controlled discharges, depending on the battery technology, to protect battery life. The terms “charge controller” or “charge regulator” may refer to either a stand-alone device, or to control circuitry integrated within a battery pack, solar battery-powered device, or battery charger.
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
| ADC | Analog to Digital Converter |
| DC | Direct current |
| GND | Ground |
| IC | Integrated Circuit |
| I | Current |
| I/O | Input/ Output |
| SPI | Serial Peripheral Interface |
| LDR | Resistor |
| MAX | Maximum |
| MCU | Microcontroller |
| MOSFET | Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor |
| VCC | Supply voltage |
| SoC | State of Charge |
| PCB | Printed Circuit Board |
| PV | Photovoltaic panels |
| CMOS | Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor |
| RISC | Reduced Instruction Set Controller |
| LVD | Low Voltage Disconnect |
| PWM | Pulse Width Modulation |
| Vmpp | Voltage at maximum power point |
| Impp | Current at maximum power point |
| STC | Standard Test Conditions |
| Voc | Open circuit voltage |
| Isc | Short circuit current |
| Insolation | Incident solar radiation |
| MPPT | Maximum Power Point Tracking |
| AGM | Absorbed Glass Mat |
| LCD | Liquid Crystal Display |
| LED | Light Emitting Diode |
| DIP | Dual Inline Package |
| DMM | Digital Multimeter |
| SDA | Serial Data |
| SCL | Serial Clock |
| IDE | Integrated Development Environment |
| RGB | Red Green Blue LED |
| AWG | American Wire Gauge |
| EEPROM | Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory |
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Energy plays vital role for development in all sectors. With depletion of fossil fuels used for power generation and increase in demand for power, the gap between supply and demand is becoming more. Renewable energy sources can only provide solution to face this energy crisis. Out of renewable energy options, solar energy is the most potential source for all tropical countries. Sun radiates 180 billion MW of energy over Earth Just one hour of this energy could meet power needs of entire planet for a year. India receives 5000 Trillion KWhrs of energy from SUN per annum. This energy is clean, pollution free and inexhaustible and is available free and in abundance. Basically the components involved in solar system are PV panel, DC-DC Converter, Battery, Inverter.
The PV panel produces electrical voltage/current from solar energy. This solar panel can produce more than the rated voltage to the battery which can be dangerous to the battery due to the high radiation of the sun. In order to tackle the present energy crisis it is necessary to develop an efficient manner in which power has to be extracted from the incoming solar radiation. The use of the newest power control mechanisms called solar charge controller was invented.
Solar Charge controller is basically a voltage and/or current regulator to keep batteries from overcharging.
Solar Charge Controller is fully configurable and developed to meet the highest industry standards to ensure maximal efficiency in retrieving energy from any PV system. When connected to solar panels and batteries, the solar charge controller automatically charges the batteries in an optimal way with all the available solar power. Solar charger controller’s sophisticated three stage charge control system can be configured to optimize charge parameters to precise battery requirements. The unit is fully protected against voltage transients, over temperature, over current, reverse battery and reverse PV connections. An automatic current limit feature allows use of the full capability without worrying about overload from excessive current, voltage or amp-hour based load control.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
There are inherent power losses that occur when the solar is connected directly to a load/battery without matching their internal impedances for which in addition to the non-linear (I-V) operating characteristics of a PV module and variations in its output power with solar insolation and operating temperature; an MPPT charge controller is used in most solar power harvesting systems to ensure maximum rated power is drawn from the solar panel and delivered to the battery while charging it in a healthy mode to increase its lifespan and for efficiency purposes under varying atmospheric conditions.
Many are available commercially for high current ratings and relatively expensive so we are building a simple cheap, adaptable, elementary and durable one from first electronic principles that does the job quite as well and has the lucrative advantage that it can be deployed in rural homes and developing areas of the world for enterprises and households cheaper than conventional MPPT charge controllers from the leading industrial manufacturers.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
The main objectives of the study are outlined below:
- To design an efficient MPPT charge controller with a maximum charging rate of 20A.
- To implement a fast and fairly accurate maximum power point tracking algorithm, several of which will be discussed, that also charges a battery in stages for healthy battery status.
- To design the MPPT charge controller system to be Plug-and-Play, user-friendly and display the vital operational parameters of the system.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
Solar Charge controller is basically a voltage and/or current regulator to keep batteries from overcharging. It regulates the voltage and current coming from the solar panels going to the battery. Most “12 volt” panels put out about 16 to 20 volts, so if there is no regulation the batteries will be damaged from overcharging. Most batteries need around 14 to 14.5 volts to get fully charged.
Solar Charge controller may also monitor battery temperature to prevent overheating. Some charge controller systems also display data, transmit data to remote displays, and data logging to track electric flow over time.
1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT
The main scope of project is, the photovoltaic cells are converting the sunlight in to electricity a charge controller is used. PV cells are bundled together in modules or panels to produce higher voltages and increased power. As the sunlight varies in intensity the electricity so generated usually charges through the charge a set of batteries for storing the energy. Controller in this project is used: To generate the variable PWM for DC-DC CONVERTER, to control the battery voltage and Controlling the load variation.
1.6 APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT
Solar Charge controller circuits are used for rechargeable electronic devices such as cell phones, laptop computers, portable audio players, and uninterruptible power supplies, as well as for larger battery systems found in electric vehicles and orbiting space satellites.
1.7 PROJECT JUSTIFICATION
The project was designed to address the challenges of low efficiencies in solar harvesting some of the causes being significant energy loss when the solar panel is directly connected to a battery and the non-linear I-V operating characteristics of solar panels which vary with atmospheric characteristics such as insolation and ambient temperature. Several MPPT charge controllers have been proven to boost efficiency while increasing the maximum charging current delivered to load by 30% in comparison to PWM charge controllers -which do not track maximum operating power point of PV modules -and the project aims at building an economical microcontroller based MPPT charge controller to be part of the solution.
1.7 PROJECT LAYOUT
The various stages involved in the development of this project have been properly put into five chapters to enhance comprehensive and concise reading. In this project thesis, the project is organized sequentially as follows:
Chapter one of this work is on the introduction to this study. In this chapter, the background, significance, objective limitation and problem of this study were discussed.
Chapter two is on literature review of the study. In this chapter, all the literature pertaining to this work was reviewed.
Chapter three is on design methodology. In this chapter all the method involved during the design and construction were discussed.
Chapter four is on testing analysis. All testing that result accurate functionality was analyzed.
Chapter five is on conclusion, recommendation and references.
