A Comparison of MPPT Solar Charge Controller techniques: A Case for Charging Rate of Battery

Abstract

In this research, two MPPT solar charge controller techniques have been measured; Perturb & Observe (P&O) and Incremental Conductance (IC) techniques. The comparison of MPPT solar charge controller techniques has been analyzed for estimating the battery charging rate and system efficiency. To carry out this experiment, the MPPT solar charge controller techniques were applied to the buck converter circuits for extracting maximum power from the PV panel into the battery. Moreover, the MPPT solar charge controller techniques were also tested in a stand-alone PV system with an 80 W PV panel and lead-acid battery which had a capacity of 20 Ah. However, the experimental results indicated that the charging rate of the IC technique can be calculated at 0.83 V/hr, while the other technique is equal to 0.65 V/hr. Furthermore, the total efficiency of the stand-alone PV system with the IC technique is around 95%. This implies that this technique has extremely efficient.