IOSR Journal of Electronicsl and Communication Engineering (IOSR-JECE) ISSN: 2278-2834-, ISBN: 2278-8735, PP: 27-33 www.iosrjournals.org DESIGN OF MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING (MPPT) BASED PV CHARGER Mr. S. K. Patil 1 , Mr.D.K.Mahadik 2 1 (Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College of Engineering Karad, India) 2 (PG Student, Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College of Engineering Karad, India) ABSTRACT : Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is used in photovoltaic systems to maximize the photovoltaic array output power, irrespective of the temperature, irradiation conditions and electrical characteristics of the load. A new MPPT system is developed, consisting of DC to DC converter, which is controlled by a microcontroller based unit. There are two charging stages for the proposed PV charger. At the beginning of the charging process, a continuous MPPT-charging scheme is adopted. When the State of Charge (SOC) of battery reaches a given condition, a pulse-current-charging scheme with an adaptive rest period is applied to obtain an average charging current with an exponential profile. During the charging period, the MPPT function is retained to achieve high charging efficiency. Overcharging of the battery can be avoided using the pulse-charging scheme with adaptive rest period. The main difference between the method used in the MPPT system and other techniques used in the past is that the PV array output power is used to directly control the DC to DC converter, thus reducing the complexity of the system. Keywords - Charge Controller, Converter, microcontroller, MOSFET, MPPT, PV array I. INTRODUCTION Solar power is a renewable source of energy, which has become increasingly popular in modern times. It has obvious advantages over non‐renewable energy sources, such as coal, oil and nuclear energy. It is non‐polluting, reliable and can produce energy anywhere that there is sun shining, so its resources are not going to run out anytime. It even has advantages over other renewable energy sources, including wind and water power. Solar power is generated using solar panels, which do not require any major mechanical parts, such as wind turbines. These mechanical parts can break down and cause maintenance issues and can also be quite noisy. Both of these issues are virtually non‐existent with solar panels. Also, the solar cells, that connected together make up the solar panel, can last up to several decades without replacement. However, there is a drawback to solar power energy can only be produce when the sun is shining. To overcome this, usually solar panels are coupled with back up rechargeable batteries, which can store excess power generated during the day and use it to provide energy to systems when there is no sun shining. In this way solar power can be used to power houses and other large scale systems. In these systems dc to ac conversion is needed. This is because the solar panel produces an output that is dc (direct current) and the power supply in homes usually runs on ac (alternating current), so conversion is required. For this project, the load to be connected only requires dc input, so dc to ac conversion is not needed. Instead, dc to dc conversion would be used to provide the correct power to the system from the power generated by the solar panel. Using this information, a number of design solutions were determined and considered. 1.1 EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT OF SOLAR CELL The equivalent circuit of a PV cell is demonstrated below in Fig.1. Second International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering (SICETE) 27 | Page Dr.J.J.Magdum College of Engineering, Jaysingpur