Microcontroller Based Photovoltaic MPPT Charge Controller

  ijett-book-cover  International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT)          
  
© 2013 by IJETT Journal
Volume-4 Issue-4                       
Year of Publication : 2013
Authors : A.Harish , M.V.D.Prasad

Citation 

A.Harish , M.V.D.Prasad. "Microcontroller Based Photovoltaic MPPT Charge Controller". International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT). V4(4):1018-1021 Apr 2013. ISSN:2231-5381. www.ijettjournal.org. published by seventh sense research group.

Abstract

In the present world there is a lot of increase in energy demand. It is time for us to come up with innovative solutions as we are going short of our available resources. Though the utilization of solar energy is very less compared to other available resources at present, it is going to double i n future. This paper describes a technique for extracting maximum power from a photovoltaic panel to charge the battery. We make use of MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithms for achieving maximum power point. The power from the solar panels is fed to charge controllers, which is output to a battery where energy is stored. An inverter is present at the outlet of battery to access stored power. A DC - to - DC converter is present inside the charge controller to match the PV module voltage to battery volt age. A microcontroller is programmed to always output maximum power. It performs this work by taking input voltage and current from solar panel, output voltage and current from DC - to - DC converter, irradiance levels from light sensor and temperature from te mperature sensor. An additional feature here is to transmit the data from the microcontroller to a remote location via RS485 interface so that this functionality aids in remotely monitoring and logging the data.

References

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Keywords
Photovoltaic panel, MPPT, DC - to - DC converter, Microcontroller, RS485.