What is MPPT Charge Controller?

 

Most of the people use solar energy to generate electricity at their house, business or farms. Although they are able to generate electricity without any hassle, the question arises is “Are they extracting maximum power from the Solar PV panels?”

The purpose of the MPPT based charge controller is the same. It extracts maximum power from the solar PV panels in order to generate maximum electricity. But how does this charger function? How it can do what it does?

Before we come to know how solar mppt charger works let us know what exactly is the concept of MPPT.

MPPT or Maximum Power Point Tracking is an algorithm that includes charge controllers used for extracting maximum available power from PV module under certain conditions. The voltage at which PV module can produce maximum power is called ‘maximum power point’ (or peak power voltage).

The major principle of MPPT charger is to extract the maximum available power from PV module by making them operate at the most efficient voltage (maximum power point). That is to say: MPPT checks output of PV module, compares it to battery voltage then fixes what is the best power that PV module can produce to charge the battery and converts it to the best voltage to get maximum current into battery. It can also supply power to a DC load, which is connected directly to the battery. When battery is deeply discharged: MPPT charger can extract more current and charge the battery if the state of charge in the battery is low.

A MPPT solar charge controller is embedded with P&O (perturb and observe) algorithm to maximize the amount of power going into the battery or power delivered to load from PV module. MPPT is a DC to DC converter which operates by taking DC input from PV module, changing it to high switching DC and converting it back to a suitable DC voltage and current to exactly match the PV module to the battery.

Wrapping things up, an MPPT charge controller is widely used nowadays to increase the efficiency of the solar power products and electricity generation. So if you are planning to generate electricity using Solar energy then go ahead and include an MPPT charger in your list in order to extract maximum power from the PV panels.