A Comparative Study of MPPT and PWM Solar Charge Controllers and their Integrated System

Abstract

The most popular renewable energy system today which is getting implemented is the solar energy system. The reason is that solar energy can be implemented at an individual house or industry level fulfilling the small energy requirements and also at large scale fulfilling the commercial requirements in megawatts. In most cases, solar energy is used to store the energy in battery backup along with the energy utilization to the load. The energy storage needs a variation in the flow of current as required and a constant potential difference between the two terminals. But the solar panel generates a current flow as well as the potential difference purely depending on the sunlight. To convert the solar energy generation to the required format different types of charge controllers used. There are various methods of charge controllers which will convert the solar energy into the format that is required to the storage devices. Among them, the most popular charge controllers are PWM based as well as MPPT technology based. This paper highlights the benefits of PWM and MPPT technology. The paper also highlights the differences between the two types and gives a conceptual model of integration of both MPPT as well as the PWM solar charge controllers. The conceptual model shows how to balance the storage backup as well as the load so as to utilize the complete solar energy thus produced. The merits and demerits of the integrated system are also discussed.