Design, Simulation and Comparative Analysis of Different Types of Solar Charge Controllers for Optimized Efficiency

The solar charge controller is designed to interface a PV (Photovoltaic) panel with a Lead-Acid battery for efficient charging of the battery. It is crucial to select the right charge controller. It is designed considering the non-linear characteristics of the PV panel and the charging and discharging profile of the battery. The charge controllers are designed on MATLAB/Simulink and then implemented with hardware. There are three types of charge controllers: the basic charge controller using voltage regulator, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) based and the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) based charge controllers. Each charge controller works best for a set of parameters. Thus, parameters such as panel's voltage/current rating, cost,operating temperature etc. are taken into consideration for choosing the right charge controller. The basic charge controller results in inefficient charging of the battery, thus, the PWM based and the MPPT based charge controllers are designed.