Projects:2020s1-1531 Low Cost, Robust, Compact, High Efficiency Automotive Solar Regulator / Battery Charger

Introduction

The project requires the design of an efficient digital power converter suitable for use with commonly available safe-voltage portable solar panels. There are many power converters available on the market which can achieve this at varying degrees of efficiency, but not many are suited to automotive use at a power level of 300 to 750W. The project requires some research to determine an appropriate input voltage range of compatible solar panels and a suitable circuit topology for charging lead-acid and lithium battery chemistries. Opportunity exists for selection of high band gap semiconductor devices, but overall cost is also a consideration. The project is to make use of a microcontroller-based design, which allows flexible optimisation of switching rate including dynamic optimisation of dead-time to maximise efficiency. A maximum power-point algorithm should be implemented that suits mobile applications.

Project team

Project students

• Jarrod Gosden
• Carl Jenke

Supervisors

• Nesimi Ertugrul
• Dr Said Al-Sawari
• Don Terrace (REDARC)

References

[1] a, b, c, "Simple page", In Proceedings of the Conference of Simpleness, 2010.