SOLAR INVERTER

CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 2. OVERVIEW FLOWCHART OF THE PROJECT 3. INVERTER 3.1. CLASSIFICATION 3.1.1. SQUARE WAVE INVERTER 3.1.2. PWM INVERTER 3.2. FULL BRIDGE INVERTER OPERTATION 3.3. PWM SWITCHING 3.4. HARDWARE DESIGN 3.4.1. CIRCUIT DESIGN 3.4.2. CONTROL CIRCUIT 3.4.3. GENERATION OF PULSES 3.4.4. MOSFET GATE DRIVER 3.4.5. FILTER CIRCUIT 3.4.6. TRANSFORMER 3.5. SIMULATION USING SIMULINK 3.6. PROGRAMMING 3.6.1. ALGORITHM FOR GENERATING SPWM PULSES 3.6.2. PROGRAM 3.6.3. SIMULATION USING MPLAB 3.7. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP 4. MAXIMUM POWERPOINT TRACKER 4.1. ELECTRIC MODEL OF PV CELL 4.2. METHODS OF PEAK POWER TRANSFER 4.3. HARDWARE SETUP 4.3.1. SOLAR PV MODULE 4.3.2. DC-DC CONVETER 4.3.2.1. 4.3.2.2. 4.3.3. LOAD BUCK CONVERTER TOPOLOGY THEORY OF OPERTATION

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4.3.4. MICROCONTROLLER 4.4. SELECTION OF SWITCHING DEVICES 4.5. MICROCONTROLLER 4.6. VOLTAGE MEASUREMENT 4.7. INPUT CURRENT MEASUREMENT 4.8. DRIVING CIRCUIT 4.9. SNUBBER CIRCUIT 4.10. 4.11. FLOWCHART FOR MPPT PROGRAM FOR MPPT

5. CONCLUSION 6. FUTURE SCOPE 7. REFERENCE

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1. INTRODUCTION
India is currently the worlds fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for 3.7% of worldwide energy consumption. Extracting useable electricity from the sun was made possible by the discovery of the photoelectric mechanism and subsequent development of the solar cell a semi conductive material - that converts visible light into a direct current. By using solar arrays, a series of solar cells electrically connected, a DC voltage is generated which can be physically used on a load. Solar arrays or panels are being used increasingly as efficiencies reach higher levels, and are especially popular in remote areas where placement of electricity lines is not economically viable. This alternative power source is continuously achieving greater popularity especially since the realization of fossil fuels shortcomings. Renewable energy in the form of electricity has been in use to some degree as long as 75 or 100 years ago. The main goal of this thesis is to use the solar power to charge Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. It is implemented a conventional Pulse Width Modulator (PWM) duty cycle ratio control method to design and build a solar battery charger prototype. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is used in the photovoltaic (PV) system to maximise the PV output power, irrespective of the temperature and irradiation conditions. It has been implemented a MPPT system, consisting of a buck-type Direct Current (DC)/DC converter, which is controlled by a microcontroller unit. The microcontroller is programmed with a simple and reliable MPPT technique: the voltage MPPT (VMPPT). It is presented a model for the lithium-ion battery (Li-Ion) that is suitable for computer simulation. The used model can be easily modified to fit data from different batteries. Sources such as Solar, Wind, Hydro and Geothermal have all been utilized with varying levels of success. The most widely used are hydro and wind power, with solar power being moderately used worldwide. This can be attributed to the relatively high cost of solar cells and their low conversion efficiency. Solar power is being heavily researched, and solar energy costs have now reached within a few cents per kW/h of other forms of electricity generation, and will drop further with new technologies such as titanium-oxide cells. With a peak laboratory efficiency of 32% and average efficiency of 15-20%, it is necessary to recover as much energy as possible from a solar power system.

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2. OVERVIEW FLOWCHART OF THE PROJECT

Study of MPPT charge controller and Invereter Design of MPPT and Invereter circuits Simulation Using SIMULINK Programming PIC Microcontroller Hardware Implementation and output verification

MPPT Implementation

Coupling MPPT to the Power Inverter and testin

Fig 2.1 overview flow chart

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3. INVERTER
Mobility and versatility have become a must for the fast-paced society today. People can no longer afford to be tied down to a fixed power source location when using their equipments. Overcoming the obstacle of fixed power has led to the invention of DC/AC inverters. While the position of inverter in the market is relatively well established, there are several features that can be improved upon. Aside from the differences in power wattage, cost per wattage, efficiency and harmonic contend, power inverters can be categorized into three groups: square wave, modified sine wave, and pure sine wave. A cost analysis of the different types of inverter shows that sine wave power inverter, though has the best power quality performance, has a big spike in cost per unit power. Another feature which can be improved is the efficiency of the inverter. The standard sine wave in the market has an average efficiency of 85-90%. Power dissipated due to efficiency flaws will be dissipated as heat and the 10-15% power lost in the will shorten operational life span of inverters. The quality of the output power could also be improved. It is imperative that the output signal be as clean as possible. Distortion in the output signal leads to a less efficient output and in the case of a square wave , which has a lot of unwanted harmonics, it will damage some sensitive equipment The use of a high frequency transformer will also enable us to meet our efficiency constraint. A high switching frequency will improve the efficiency of the inverter. In theory, a 100 percent efficient converter could be created. However, due to the

limitations of actual device material, our efficiency will be between 90 and 100 percent. The DC/AC inverter circuit will use a microprocessor to digitally pulse the transistors. This will allow us to produce a pure sine wave output.

Power circuit configuration of inverter consists of semiconductor devices that function as static switches without moving elements. The inverter also has switching control circuit that provide necessary pulses to turn on and turn off each static switching element with correct timing and sequence. When an inverter is required for practical power conversion or power control applications, the following features of AC output should be considered AC Frequency: In static inverters, the AC frequency is precisely adjustable by adjustment of switching frequency of the power switching elements.

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Magnitude of AC voltage: There is usually provision for adjustment of voltage in one of the two ways 1. The voltage may be varied by varying the DC input voltage. In this case the adjustment is outside the inverter and is independent of switching frequency. 2. Another way of AC voltage variation is within the inverter by a technique called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).

3.1 CLASSIFICATION
There are different type of inverters in terms of number of phases, use of solid state devices, and the output waveform. Inverters can be mainly classified into Half bridge and Full bridge inverters. Out of this Full bridge inverter is widely used in various applications such as AC motors, photovoltaic interface, active filters etc. The main drawback of Half bridge inverter is that it requires 3 wire DC supply. Full bridge topology consists of four switches which are driven by either phase shifted square wave pulses or by varying switching techniques such as PWM switching, soft switching etc. Depending upon the switching pulses given to the switches, Full bridge inverters can be classified as square wave and PWM inverter.

3.1.2 SQUARE WAVE INVERTER In this type switches are driven by applying low frequency square wave pulses. The input DC voltage is controlled in order to control the magnitude of the AC output voltage and therefore the inverter has to control only the frequency of output voltage. The output AC voltage has a waveform similar to a square wave, and hence these inverters are called square wave inverters. Here the switching losses become low due to low frequency switching, but the output contains large amount of low order harmonics which are difficult to filter and bulky filters are needed which causes additional losses.

3.1.3PWM INVERTER In this type, all the switches are operated at higher switching frequency. The DC input voltage is essentially constant in magnitude. Therefore inverter must control the magnitude and frequency of AC output voltages which can be achieved by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) of inverter switches and hence such inverters are called PWM inverters. Due to high

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frequency switching, low order harmonics can be eliminated but the switching losses are more.

3.2FULL BRIDGE INVERTER OPERATION Full bridge topology consists of four switches s1, s2, s3 and s4 and the output voltage of the inverter can be drawn by taking into consideration the ON and OFF states of the four switches. After ascertaining the status of the inverter switches at any instant, the inverter output voltage at that instant can be found from the following reasoning with reference to the figure below.

Fig. 3.2 Full bridge inverter

1. Two switches of the inverter will be on at any instant of time. These two switches will be on the two separate legs of the inverter bridge. 2. If the two switches that are ON are on the top of the inverter legs then freewheeling takes place and the output voltage is zero. 3. If the two switches that are ON are on the lower side of the legs, again freewheeling takes place and output voltage is zero. 4. If in figure switches s1 and s4 are ON then the output voltage is equal to DC input voltage V to the inverter 5. If the switches s2 and s3 are ON, then the output voltage of the inverter is -V

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3.3PWM SWITCHING

Various PWM techniques have been used to create transistor drive circuits. Before microcontrollers became popular, varying PWM circuits usually consisted of analog-todigital comparator circuits. These circuits compared a small voltage sinusoidal wave (reference signal) to a small voltage saw-tooth wave (control frequency signal). At each point where the sinusoidal and saw-tooth signals intersect, the output of the comparator toggles from a high state to a low state. To illustrate the theory behind sinusoidal PWM, Figure below shows the expected output of a sine wave compared to a saw-tooth wave. The duty cycle actually varies according to the time between sampling the reference sine wave.

Fig 3.3

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3.4 HARDWARE DESIGN

One of the most important considerations in building a pure sine-wave inverter is the output signal. As the name implies, a pure sine-wave inverter should produce an output signal with few fluctuations in voltage and current. Choosing parts for the inverter involved extensive research of the advantages and disadvantages of particular circuit topologies. Some of the major factors that determined the topology of choice for this project include power capabilities, efficiency, size, simplicity and cost and H-Bridge topology most satisfied these factors. All power semiconductor controlled devices require a drive signal to switch it from OFF sate to the ON state and vice versa. The actual drive circuit depends on the type of device and its current and voltage ratings. Its primary function is to minimize the turn on and turn off times so that the power device spends little time in traversing the active region where the instantaneous power dissipation is large. In order to reduce total harmonic distortion, a pulse width modulated (PWM) topology was chosen over the square-wave topology. The PWM method allows for filtering many unwanted harmonics in the output signal, which is not possible in square-wave inverter. The DC/AC inverter will use a high frequency transformer, enabling us to reduce the size of the inverter considerably. The use of a high frequency transformer will improve the efficiency of the inverter. So here we choose the switching frequency as 4KHz and choose a suitable switching device (MOSFET).

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3.4.1 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

PIC 16F877A

Fig 3.4 Circuit diagram of inverter

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3.4.2 CONTROL CIRCUIT Here PIC microcontroller 16F877A is used for generating both SPWM and low frequency square wave pulses.PIC 16F877A has a thigh computational performance at an economical price with the addition of high endurance. It has enhanced flash program memory. On top of these features, the PIC 16F877A family introduces design enhancements that make this microcontroller a logical choice for many high performances; power sensitive applications. PWM moduke is helpful for generating SPWM signal.

3.4.3 GENERATION OF PULSES PIC 16F877A has CCP module. Pulse width modulation is an important feature of CCP (Capture/compare/PWM) module. PWM feature allows us to create pulses with variable widths. Although we can program timers to create PWM, the CCP module makes the programming of PWM much easier and less tedious. In creating pulses with variable widths for the PWM, two factors i.e. period of the pulse and its duty cycle are important. The duty cycle is the portion of the pulse that stays HIGH relative to entire period. For square wave pulse generation, timer0 is used to generate the time delay. Timer2 is associated with PWM operation, so it is used in SPWM signal generation. Here, internal oscillator is employed.

Calculation of Period of PWM: Internal oscillator frequency, Fosc=16MHZ Prescalar value chosen, Np is 1. Then, Period of PWM, PR2 = [Fosc/(Fpwm4Np)]-1 =249 This value is loaded to PR2 register. Calculation of time delay for square pulse generation: Time delay = [Number of Count/(Fosc/4)] Time delay required is 10ms Therefore, Number of count = (63C0)H; This value is loaded to timer0.

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3.4.4 MOSFET GATE DRIVER

Switching device used for hardware implementation is MOSFET IRF 540N. For lower capacity, MOSFET is usually employed and also switching frequency upto 10 KHz can be applied. By simply giving pulses to the MOSFET device, it will not turn on. The gate drive requirements for Mosfets are:

Gate voltage must be 10-15volt higher than the drain voltage. The gate voltage must be controllable from the logic, which is normally referenced to ground. The power absorbed by the gate drive circuitry should not significantly affect the overall efficiency. Here IR2110 driver IC is used as the gate drive for the MOSFETs. Here separate power supply is required for each driver circuit.

3.4.5 FILTER CIRCUIT

Here a low pass LC filter is used to reduce harmonics in the output. The attenuation offered by low pass LC filter to the switching frequency components in the output is roughly (fs/fo)2 Where fs is the switching frequency and fo is the natural frequency of the LC filter, (f0=1/(2)LC). The desired attenuation will fix only the product LC and does not give any clue as to how to split the product among L and C.

LC Filter Design: Taking Switching frequency fs = 4KHZ Eqn. fc =1/((LC)) ..............................(1) Where, fc is the carrier frequency L is the inductance C is the capacitance fc < fs (Switching frequency) Therefore taking, fc = 800 Hz Taking L = 1 mH From eqn. (1), we get C=66 micro farad

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3.5.6 TRANSFORMER Design: Input voltage Output voltage VA rating Frequency Assume, Flux density in core,B Stacking factor for the core laminations Current density in the winding,J From table for 20 VA, Number of turns per volt, Te Efficiency, CORE DESIGN: Flux m = 1/(4.44 f Te) = 3.2 10-4 Net core area, Ai =m/Bm =3.2 10-4 Gross core area, AG =3.2/0.9 =3.56 cm2 Assuming space cross-sectional core, width of central limb, A =AG =1.89 cm From table E-I stampings, Sankey type no A
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= 12V = 230V =20VA =50H

=1Wb/m2 =0.9 =2.3A/mm2

=14 =90%

=23 =19.1mm
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B C D E Window area available with the stamping

=57.2mm =47.7mm =9.52mm =9.52mm = [(B-2D-A)/2] [C-2E] =273.13 cm2

WINDOW DESIGN: Primary current, Ip = VA/Vp =1.85A ap =Ip/J =0.805mm2 dp =(4 ap) =1.794mm From table, nearest standard wire size is 1.8mm diameter dp dp ap =1.8mm =1.885mm (medium covering) = dp2/4 =2.54mm2 Turns in primary winding Tp =Te Vp =168 Turns in secondary winding Ts =Te Vs =3220 Considering 5% more turns for the voltage drop in secondary winding Ts Secondary current, Is =3381 =VA/Vs

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=0.086 A as =Is/J =0.037mm2 ds =(4 as ) =0.3867mm From table, nearest standard wire size is 0.4mm ds ds1 as Space required for the primary and Secondary winding =[(Tpap)/Sfp] + [(Tsas)/Sfs] =1064.217mm2 Assuming 25% additional space required for insulation, former etc Net space required Number of stampings required =13.3cm2 =width of central core/thickness of stamping =38 Width of window on the core, w =window area required/C-2E =4.6cm w/2 Mean length of turn, tav =2.3cm =4 (1.89 + 2.3 + 2.3) =25.96cm Weight of copper wire required for both primary and secondary winding is =tav ap Tp + as Ts density of copper =1111.54g MATERIALS REQUIRED: Number of sankey-stampings No.23 Diameter of primary winding wire =38 =1.8mm =0.4mm =0.445mm(medium covering) = ds2/4

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Diameter of secondary winding wire Total weight of copper wire required

=0.4mm =1112g

3.5 SIMULATION USING SIMULINK To verify the improvement in quality and performance of the inverter simulation is done with the help of SIMULINK-MATLAB 6.0 version. Simulink, which is an extension of matlab, is a software package for modelling, simulating and analysing dynamic systems. It supports linear and non-linear systems, modelled in continuous time, sampled time, or hybrid of the two. Simpower systems block library of simulink, consists of several block libraries of electrical models such as electrical sources, linear and non-linear electrical elements, power electronic switches, electrical machines, electric connectors and measurement devices. Simulation of the PWM inverter is done here.

Fig 3.5 simulation circuit

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Fig 3.6 subsystem (filter)

SIMULATION RESULTS

time

INFERENCE

A sinusoidal wave of peak voltage magnitude 325volt and time period 20ms was obtained.

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3.6 PROGRAMMING
For the generation of SPWM signal, we have to create a sine table. The values in the sine table represent the magnitude of the sine of angles between 0 and 3600. The values for the sine function vary from -1.0 to 1.0. Therefore, the table values are integer numbers representing the voltage magnitude for the sine of . This method ensures that only integer numbers are output to the DAC by the microcontroller. To generate sine table, we assumed full scale voltage of 10 volt for DAC output. Full scale output of DAC is achieved when all the data inputs of DAC are high. Therefore, to achieve the full scale of 10volt we use the following equation: Vout= 5V+(5sin) Vout for various angles are calculated. We know that for generating SPWM signal, triangular carrier wave is compared with sinusoidal modulating wave and when carrier wave has its peak coincident with the zero of the reference sinusoid, there are N= Fc/F pulses in a cycle. Here, as a result, 300 pulses are there in a cycle. Therefore, Vout for 300 angles are calculated i.e. divide 0 to 3600 into 300 angles. The content from the sine table is loaded to the CCPRIL register one by one for PWM operation.

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3.6.1 ALGORITHM FOR GENERATING SPWM PULSES Algorithm for generating SPWM signal is shown below

Start

Configure CCPICON register for PWM and OSCCON and OSCTUNE register for internal oscillator

Load value corresponding to PWM period to PR2 register

Load lookup table address to TBLPTR register

Read the value from lookup table and load to W register and increment the TBLPTR register

If Wregister content = 0

YES

NO Load W register content to CCPRIL register

Make the PWM pin as output

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Configure the T2CON register and then turn on timer 2

Increment TM2 register and compare TMR2 register with CCPRIL

Is TMR2=CCPRIL

Set RC2=0

Increment TMR2 register and continue comparison with PR2 register

Is TMR2=CCPRIL

YES

NO Set RC2=0

Clear time2 flag register

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3.6.2 PROGRAM:

listp=16F877A #include "P16F877A.INC" org H'0' goto MAIN MAIN: clrf TRISC movlw B'00111100' movwf CCP1CON movlw H'6c' movwf OSCCON movlw H'40' movwf OSCTUNE bcf TRISB, 5 movlw H'8' movwf T0CON REPEAT: movlw D'249' movwf PR2 movlw upper(SINE_TABLE) movwf TBLPTRU movlw high(SINE_TABLE) movlw TBLPTRH movlw low (SINE_TABLE) movwf TBLPTRL TABLE_READ: TBLRD*+

movff TABLAT, WREG

xorlw 0X0 bz REPEAT COMPARE: movlw H'63' movwf TMR0H movlw H'C0' movwf TMR0L

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bcf INTCON, TMR0ON btg PORTB,5 bsf T0CON, TMR0ON DELAY: btfss INTCON, TMR0ON bra DELAY bcf T0CON, TMR0ON movwf CCPR1L bcf TRISC, CCP1 movlw 0X00 movwf T2CON clrf TMR2 bsf T2CON, TMR2ON bcf PIR1, TMR2IF AGAIN: btfss PIR1, TMR2IF bra AGAIN bra TABLE_READ

org 500H SINE_TABLE: DB D'128',D'131',D'133',D'136',D'138',D'141',D'143'

DB D'146',D'148',D'151',D'153',D'156',D'158',D'160' DB D'163',D'165',D'168',D'170',D'172',D'175' DB D'177',D'179',D'182',D'184',D'186',D'189',D'191' DB D'193',D'195',D'197',D'199',D'201',D'203',D'205' DB D'207',D'209',D'211',D'213',D'215',D'217',D'219' DB D'220',D'222',D'224',D'226',D'227',D'229',D'230' DB D'232',D'233',D'235',D'236',D'237',D'239',D'240' DB D'241',D'242',D'243',D'244',D'245',D'246',D'247' DB D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249' DB D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249' DB D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249' DB D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249' DB D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249',D'249' DB D'249',D'248',D'247',D'246',D'245',D'244',D'243'
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DB D'242',D'240',D'239',D'238',D'237',D'235',D'234' DB D'233',D'231',D'230',D'228',D'226',D'225',D'223' DB D'221',D'220',D'218',D'216',D'214',D'212',D'210' DB D'208',D'206',D'204',D'202',D'200',D'198',D'196' DB D'194',D'192',D'190',D'187',D'185',D'183',D'181' DB D'178',D'176',D'174',D'171',D'169',D'166',D'164' DB D'162',D'159',D'157',D'154',D'127',D'124',D'122' DB D'119',D'117',D'114',D'112',D'109',D'107',D'104' DB D'102',D'99',D'97',D'94',D'92',D'90',D'87',D'85' DB D'82',D'80',D'78',D'75',D'73',D'71',D'69',D'66' DB D'64',D'62',D'60',D'58',D'56',D'54',D'52',D'50' DB D'48',D'46',D'44',D'42',D'40',D'38',D'36',D'35' DB D'33',D'31',D'30',D'28',D'26',D'25',D'23',D'22' DB D'21',D'19',D'18',D'17',D'16',D'14',D'13',D'12' DB D'11',D'10',D'9',D'8',D'7',D'6',D'5',D'4',D'4' DB D'3',D'3',D'2',D'2',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1' DB D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'1',D'2' DB D'2',D'3',D'3',D'4',D'5',D'5',D'6',D'7',D'8',D'9' DB D'10',D'11',D'12',D'13',D'14',D'15',D'16',D'17' DB D'19',D'20',D'21',D'23',D'24',D'26',D'27',D'29' DB D'30',D'32',D'34',D'36',D'37',D'39',D'31',D'43' DB D'45',D'47',D'49',D'98',D'100',D'103',D'105' DB D'108',D'110',D'113',D'115',D'118',D'120' DB D'123',D'125',D'128' END

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3.6.3 PROGRAM SIMULATION USING MPLAB

The development process can be broken down into three distinct steps. Writing your code Debugging the code Programming the device

To serve each of these functions, the MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) can be used. The MPLAB ICD 2 In-circuit Debugger offers the most cost effective debugging and programming solution. MPLAB ICD 2 allows to debug PIC devices directly in the target board

Fig. 3.7 Simulation result

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3.7 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

DSO Output

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4.MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKER

Renewable energy sources play an important role in electricity generation. Various renewable energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, ocean thermal, and biomass can be used for generation of electricity and for meeting our daily energy needs. Energy from the sun is the best option for electricity generation as it is available everywhere and is free to harness. On an average the sunshine hour in India is about 6hrs annually also the sun shine shines in India for about 9 months in a year. Electricity from the sun can be generated through the solar photovoltaic modules (SPV). The SPV comes in various power output to meet the load requirement. Maximization of power from a solar photo voltaic module (SPV) is of special interest as the efficiency of the SPV module is very low. A peak power tracker is used for extracting the maximum power from the SPV module.

The photovoltaic modules are made up of silicon cells. The silicon solar cells which give output voltage of around 0.7V under open circuit condition. When many such cells are connected in series we get a solar PV module. Normally in a module there are 36 cells which amount for a open circuit voltage of about 20V. The current rating of the modules depends on the area of the individual cells. Higher the cell area high is the current output of the cell. For obtaining higher power output the solar PV modules are connected in series and parallel combinations forming solar PV arrays.

A typical characteristic curve of the called current (I) and voltage (V) curve and power (W) and voltage (V) curve of the module is shown in the figure.

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Fig.4.1 Solar cell characteristics

Solar panels convert photons from the sun striking their surfaces into electricity of a characteristic voltage and current. The solar panels electrical output can be plotted on a graph of voltage vs current: an IV curve. I represents the current in amps and V represents

the voltage in volts. The resulting line on the graph shows the current output of the panel for each voltage at a specific light level and temperature. The current is constant until reaching the higher voltages, when it falls off rapidly.

Power supplied from a PV array depends mostly on present atmospheric conditions (irradiation and temperature), therefore in order to harvest the maximum available power the operating point needs to be tracked continuously using a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) algorithm. In case of standard test conditions (STC), which are: 25C ambient temperature and 1000W/m2 irradiation, the Maximum Power Point (MPP) is at the top of the characteristic. Most MPPT algorithms are based on the hill-climbing method and

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the MPP is found by changing the reference voltage of the PV, so that the extracted power is always the highest one for the present irradiation and temperature. However, in a solar power system we are more concerned with the power we can get out of the system, power we can use to do useful work. In an electrical system power is measured in watts, which is the product of the voltage and current (W = I x V) generated by the panel. Graphing the watts generated by the solar panel shows that the maximum watts are produced at a panel voltage of about 14v. This value is called the Maximum Power Point or MPP. The goal of the PPT is to generate the maximum power from the solar panels.

4.1 ELECTRIC MODEL OF PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL

During darkness, the solar cell is not an active device: it works like a normal diode, i.e. a p-n junction. It produces neither a current nor a voltage. However, if it is connected to an external supply a current D i , called diode current, will be present. A solar cell is usually represented by an electrical equivalent one-diode model with a series resistance.

Fig.2 Equivalent circuit of solar cell

The model contains a current source Is, one diode and a resistor Rs . The net current is the difference between the photocurrent IS and the normal diode current ID . The diode current is

ID = IO [e ( Vsa+RsIsa)/mVT ) 1]
Where,

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IO diode current (strongly dependent on temperature) Isa voltage imposed across the cell m ideal factor (ideal: m =1; real: m > 1) VT Thermal potential RS Series cell resistance

VT = KT/q
Where, K Boltzmann constant, K =1,3810-23 J / K T cell temperature in K 0C = 273,16 K q electric charge of electron, q =1,610-19C The net current Isa is given by

Isa = Is ID
Taking into account the model for a single solar cell, it is possible to determine the I-V characteristic of M cells in parallel and N cells in series

Vsa = VT ln [(Is Isa)/(M IO) + 1] Rsa Isa

Where =MN

In short, a real solar cell can be characterised by the following fundamental parameters: Short circuit current, ISC is the greatest value of the current generated by a cell. It is produced under short circuit conditions. Open Circuit Voltage Corresponds to the voltage drop across the diode (p-n junction) when it is traversed by the photocurrent IS, namely when the generated current is zero.

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4.2 METHODS OF PEAK POWER TRANSFER

The peak power is reached with the help of a dc/dc converter by adjusting its duty cycle such that the resistance corresponding to the peak power is obtained and maximum power is transferred always. An automatic tracking can be implemented using various algorithms. The different algorithms are Perturb and observe Incremental Conductance Parasitic Capacitance Voltage Based Peak Power Tracking Current Based peak power Tracking

This project is implemented using the voltage based peak power tracking algorithm. It is assumed that a maximum power point of a particular solar PV module lies at about 0.75 times the open circuit voltage of the module. So by measuring the open circuit voltage a reference voltage can be generated and feed forward voltage control scheme can be implemented to bring the solar pv module voltage to the point of maximum power. A dc/dc converter forms an integral part of any MPPT system. Without dc/dc converter no MPPT system are designed. The dc/dc converter can be either a step down converter in which output voltage is less than input voltage or step up converter in which the output voltage is higher than the input voltage.

The step down converter the output voltage (Vo) is less than the input voltage (Vi). The input and output voltage are related with each other by the equation Vo = D*Vi Where D is the duty cycle of the converter that is the ratio of the tON (time for which the converter remains ON to the switching time t of the converter).

D = tON /t

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Thus by varying the duty cycle the output voltage can be changed also the input current and the output current changes with the change in the duty cycle. Also the impedance seen by the converter input side varies with the duty cycle Ri = RL/D2 Where Ri is the input resistance and RL is the load resistance. This property of the converter to transfer impedance is utilized in the MPPT. The step down converter can be used in the cases where the output voltage required is less than the input voltage.

Fig 4.3 Change in resistance

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4.3 HARDWARE SETUP OF MPPT

The hardware setup of the MPPT consists of a Solar PV module Dc/Dc converter (step down) A load (resistive load) Microcontroller

SOLAR PV MODULE

DC-DC CONVERTER

LOAD

Voltage

current

to switches

MICROCONTROLLER

4.3.1 SOLAR PV MODULE Solar PV module used is a 18W module having 18Vp and 1Ap at 25degree Celsius and 1000W/m2. The module voltage and current where measured and signals are fed to microcontroller.

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4.3.2 DC-DC CONVERTER The dc/dc step down converter is the main component of the MPPT system. It acts as an interface between the module and the load. The converters are controlled through the microcontroller.

4.3.2.1 Buck converter topology The ideal buck converter has the basic five components, namely a power semiconductor switch, a diode, an inductor, a capacitor and a PWM controller. The topology of the buck converter is shown.

4.3.2.2 Theory of operation The DC/DC converter will connect / disconnect conveniently the solar panel from the battery based on PWM signals. The capacitor C is assumed to be large enough such that out v has a ripple of less than 3% and is therefore, essentially ripple free. Current out i is also assumed to be ripple free. Assuming continuous conduction, the circuit has two topologies switch 1 M closed and

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switch 1 M open. When switch 1 M is closed, the power of the voltage source is delivered to the load through inductor L1. The diode is reverse biased and opens, and the current increases at the rate of:

diL/dt = VL/L1 =( Vsa - Vout )/L1 , 0 < t < T

In this case, the inductor L1 is charging. When the switch is open, current continues to circulate through the diode, and this component is forward biased, and current decreases at the rate of

diL/dt = VL/L1 = -Vout/L1 , T < t < T

and the inductor L1 is discharging. If the parameters of the circuit are well dimensioned such that the current does not go to complete zero (in this case the circuit is in continuous conduction), the diode remains in conduction until the switch closes and the diode is reverse biased and opens. Due to the steady-state inductor principle, the average voltage across L1 is zero. Since voltage have two states, both having constant voltage, the average value is given by

Vout = Vsa
d, is the duty cycle and varies between 1 and 0. Therefore the output voltage will always be less then the input voltage.

4.3.3 LOAD

Load used is a purely a resistive load. 4.3.4 MICROCONTROLLER

PIC 16F877A microcontroller is used. The voltage and current from the solar pv module is fed to the microcontroller to generate control pulses for the switches in the step down DC-DC converter inorder to adjust the duty cycle for transferring maximum power.

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4.4 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF MPPT

4.4 SELECTION OF SWITCHING DEVICE

IRFZ44 is an N-channel enhancement mode silicon gate power field effect transistor. They are advanced power MOSFETs designed, tested and guaranteed to withstand a specified level of energy in the breakdown avalanche mode of operation. All of these power MOSFETs are designed for applications such as switching regulators, switching convertors, motor drives, relay drivers, and drivers for high power bipolar

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switching transistors requiring high speed and low gate drive power. These types can be operated directly from integrated circuits.

4.5 MICROCONTROLLER

Microcontroller used in our project is PIC 16F877A. It is programmed to generate PULSE WIDTH MODULATION (PWM), to measure panel voltage and panel current.

4.6 VOLTAGE MEASUREMENT

Panel voltage and battery voltage is measured by using a voltage divider circuit and the voltage divider is tuned in such a fashion that the output will measure upto5V when the input is 24V . So for every 0.1V change in output the ADC reads 1bit.

4.7 INPUT CURRENT MEASUREMENT The input current measurement is done by connecting a sense resistor of 1 in series with the panel and battery negative terminal. The voltage across this resistor is fed to an Opamp LM 358. The gain of the Op- Amp is adjusted so as to give an output of 5V. The op-amp is configured as a difference amplifier with a gain of 10 set by R10, R11, R18 and R20.

4.8 DRIVING CIRCUIT The MOSFET is driven with the PWM signal generated by the microcontroller. The MOSFET is driven using a MOSFET driver called IR2110.

4.9 SNUBBER CIRCUIT The C15 and R8are a snubber network used to cut down on some of the electrical noise generated by the switching current in the inductor. R25 drains the current out of the gate on the low side switch to make sure it is off when the power is shut off. The input power

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connector (to the solar panels) is the screw terminal J4. J3 is the output screw terminal connector (to the battery). F1 is the 10A safety fuse. Power semiconductors are the heart of power electronics equipment. Snubbers are circuits which are placed across semiconductor devices for protection and to improve performance. Snubber scan do many things: Reduce or eliminate voltage or current spikes Limit dI/dt or dV/dt Shape the load line to keep it within the safe operating area (SOA) Transfer power dissipation from the switch to a resistor or a useful load Reduce total losses due to switching Reduce EMI by damping voltage and current ringing There are many different kinds of snubbers but the two most common ones are the resistor-capacitor (RC) damping network and the resistor-capacitor-diode (RCD) turn-off snubber.

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4.10 FLOWCHART FOR MPPT

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4.11 PROGRAM FOR MPPT #include <pic.h> #include "lcd.h" int duty = 25; int read_adc(char chn){ ADCON0 = (channel << 3) + 0x81; ADGO = 1; while(ADGO) continue; // wait for conversion complete // enable ADC, RC osc.

return(((int)ADRESH<<8) | ADRESL);

} void dtoa(unsigned int value,char *buf,char n){ buf[n] = 0; while(n--){ buf[n] = (value%10)+'0'; value /= 10; } }

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void init_pwm4(void){ TRISC1 = 0; RC1 = 0; T2CON = 0; TMR2ON = 1; T2CKPS1 = 0; T2CKPS0 = 0; TMR2 = 0; CCP2CON = 0X0C; CCPR2L = duty; PR2 = 50; }

int main(void){ char disp_buf[5]; signed int ldr1,ldr2; int pc,pv,bv,vi; int prev_watt=0; int cur_watt; rpos = 0;

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TRISD = 0;

init_adc(); init_lcd(); lcd_command(0X80); printlcd(" MPPT ");

lcd_command(0XC0); printlcd(" init_pwm(); ");

pv = read_adc(5)/4.8; pc = read_adc(4); bv = read_adc(2)/4.8; vi = pv*pc; lcd_command(0X80); printlcd("PV:"); dtoa(pv,disp_buf,2); printlcd(disp_buf); printlcd("V PC:"); dtoa(pc,disp_buf,4);

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printlcd(disp_buf); printlcd("mA");

lcd_command(0XC0); printlcd("BV:"); dtoa(bv,disp_buf,2); printlcd(disp_buf); printlcd("V VI:"); dtoa(vi,disp_buf,2); printlcd(disp_buf); printlcd("W"); //mppt cur_watt = pv*pc; if(prev_watt > cur_watt){ duty++; if(duty > 45)duty=45; } else if(prev_watt < cur_watt){ duty--; if(duty < 1)duty=5;

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} prev_watt = cur_watt; } }

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5. CONCLUSION
It has always been obvious that in this earth weare capable of producing a lot more energy than we think. In fact, most of the fossil fuels are depleting, people are worried about where our energy is going to come from when the inevitable happens. The most emerging technique is the usage of solar energy, which is conventionally used in small scale for purposes like cooking, water heating etc. at households. There are many ways that solar energy advantages can work for you. The most easiest way for us to take advantage of solar energy advantages is to install solar panels. In our project our main objective was to make the solar energy available to domestic application in a bettermanner. The usage of Maximum Power Point Tracker helped us to efficiently transfer the power generated in the panel to the load circuit. For MPPT we used VMPPT technique, whose output was fed to a battery for charging it. From there it was utilized by converting this dc supply to ac by using an inverter. Of the various topologies and PWM techniques for the realization of inverter, we selected H-Bridge topology and Sinusoidal PWM technique. Sinusoidal PWM technique used for firing MOSFETs enabled us to get pure sine wave output for the resistive load connected when suitably designed L-C filter was connected to the SPWM output of the MOSFETs.

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6. FUTURE SCOPE
1. A solar tracker can be incorporated with panel to receive maximum sunlight throughout the day. 2. To incorporate boost circuit in the MPPT circuit for better performance. 3. Use Fuzzy logic for faster operation of the MPPT. 4. Study is to be conducted for finding scope of interfacing large solar panels to grid. 5. Study is to be made to get higher efficiency. 6. Study is to be made in the inverter topologies to get more efficient and distortion free topology.

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7.REFERENCE
1. Rame Panda, R.K.Tripathi,A Novel Sine Wave Inverter with PWM DC Link, 2008 IEEE Reigion 10 colloquium and the third ICIIS Kharagpur,December 8. 2. Swetha K Microcontroller based PWM DC Link Full Bridge Inverter,2009 National Conference Technological Trends (NCTT 2009) which was hedla in college of Engineering,Trivandrum. 3. Carlos Manual Ferriera Santos Optimised Photovoltaic Solar Charger with Maximum Power Point Tracker,Thesis presented in MIT December 2009. 4. K.B Raina,S.K.Bhattacharya,Electrical Design Estimation And Costing First reprint, February 1993.' 5. Dr.P.S.Bimbra , Power Electronics , 3rd edition,2005 PP.331-320,349-356. 6. Datasheet of PIC 16F877A. 7. Application notes and datasheet from http://www.irf.com/.

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