Mr. Karthick R.T, Dr. Ashok Kumar L.

108

Stand-Alone Solar Power Generation System

with Constant Current Discharge
Mr. Karthick R.T and Dr. Ashok Kumar L

Abstract— In this paper the current of 10 A is discharged DC-DC converters with high voltage gain are usually
constantly from battery. The constant current of 10 A is drawn required in battery powered applications like renewable
using MOSFET as a variable resistor. The discharged current energy system, fuel cells, embedded system, uninterrupted
is used for an inverter application. The battery is charged with
power supply (UPS) and automotive applications [1]-
the help of solar panel. The energy wasted during the battery
[4].These applications demand high step-up static gain, high
testing process is converted into useful energy. To achieve the
high AC voltage similar to power that would be available at an efficiency and high power density. Hence, it is preferable
electrical wall outlet, we go for boost converter, which converts for the high voltage boost converters to possess high voltage
low voltage DC to high voltage DC. The method used to obtain gain (more than 10), high efficiency and high power density.
high DC voltage is voltage multiplier technique applied to the The step-up DC-DC converter needs to be highly efficient
classical non-isolated dc–dc converters. The duty ratio of the and usually deals with high output voltage. Therefore a
converter is also maintained at safe limits while obtaining the careful study must be done in order to select a particular
required voltage gain. The topology has been designed for a topology for a high step-up application. Some classical
100 V, 1 kW application operating from 12 V input. The
converters with magnetic coupling such as fly back
reactive elements are designed for a switching frequency of 50
Converter can easily achieve high step-up voltage gain [1].
kHz. Various operating modes, design equations, simulation
results are presented. The wind energy can also be integrated
The power transformer volume is a problem for the
for more power generation in future. development of the compact converter. The energy of the
Keywords: MOSFET, DC and AC power transformer leakage inductance can produce high voltage
stress, increases the switching losses and the
electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems, reducing the
I. INTRODUCTION.
converter efficiency.
This paper focuses on DC to AC power inverters, which
aim to efficiently transform a DC power source to a high
Active clamping soft communication technique can be
voltage AC source of 120 V, similar to power that would be
used to reduce the switching losses and the EMI generation
available at an electrical wall outlet. Inverters are used for
[2]. However the voltage stress is higher than in the hard
many applications, as in situations where low voltage DC
switching structure, the cost and circuit complicity are
sources such as batteries, solar panels or fuel cells must be
increased. Thus the weight, volume and losses of power
converted so that devices can run off of AC power. One
transformer are limiting factors for the isolator DC-DC
example of such a situation would be converting electrical
converters used in particular applications. Voltage multiplier
power from a car battery to run a laptop, TV or cell phones.
cell based non-isolated DC-DC topologies were proposed in
[3]-[4]. The required voltage gain was obtained by adding
In battery manufacturing industries battery is tested with
required number of multiplier cells consisting of capacitors
discharger coil. Thus the useful energy is wasted as heat.
and diodes. However, the required output voltage depends
Thus it should be converted into useful one. This paper
on the number of multiplier cells. Further, soft switching
focus on charging battery from solar panel and discharging
was not achieved in these topologies.
it for 10 A. when load is connected to battery there will be
sudden raise in current which drains the battery soon. It
A new alternative for the implementation of high step-up
should be minimized. Thus we go for constant current
structures are proposed in this paper with the use of the
discharge circuit. Moreover charge controller will have
voltage multiplier cells integrated with classical non-
LED’s to intimate status of battery.
isolated dc–dc converters and constant current discharge
circuit.

II. MOSFET DRIVER FOR CONSTANT CURRENT

DISCHARGE
Karthick R.T. working as an Assistant Professor, P.S.G College Of Battery should always be operated in its operating
Technology, Coimbatore, India, [email protected], Dr. Ashok Kumar voltage level. so that we can increase its life. It is helpful for
L. working as an Associate Professor, P.S.G College Of Technology,
Coimbatore, India, [email protected]

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical and Electronics (IJETEE – ISSN: 2320-9569) Vol. 5, Issue. 1, July-2013.
Mr. Karthick R.T, Dr. Ashok Kumar L. 109

monitoring purpose also. Suppose when the battery goes R = 1.2 Ω

below the operating level i.e. voltage of the battery drains
the current also varies accordingly to it. Thus the current The load resistance is 0.5 Ω, it cannot be changed. Thus
should be made constant. The current is controlled using MOSFET varies its resistance as 0.7 Ω. This happens due to
MOSFET. change in the drain current when the battery in full voltage
MOSFET is used as a switch to draw the constant level consider 10 V
current of 10 A from each battery for the load. A positive
(for N-Channel) or negative (for P-Channel) VGS produces V = IR
a conducting channel between the Drain and Source. The
are two operating region of MOSFET. They are linear and R = 10/10
saturation region. I linear region MOSFET behaves like a
resistance and in saturation region it behaves like a current R = 1.0 Ω
source.
There are two types of drive configuration to drive the The load resistance is 0.5 Ω, it cannot be changed. Thus
MOSFET. They are low side drive (LSD) and high side MOSFET varies its resistance as 0.5 Ω. This happens due to
drive (HSD) configurations. Thus HSD is used for drawing change in the drain current.
constant current of 10 A from each battery. The PSPICE
circuit (Fig 1) is shown here that is used for constant current
discharge. Here the MOSFET switch is connected between
supply and load. Shunt resistor is connected across the
switch and load to take the low voltage drop. This small
voltage drop is the input for the differential op-amp. The
output from this op-amp is added with 0.3 V (small voltage
drop) in adder op-amp. This adder op-amp is with unity
gain. Thus we achieve the gate to source voltage nearer to
supply voltage. This makes the MOSFET to behave in linear
region that is as resistor. So we can now draw 10 A from
each battery. So that when the battery voltage decreases
from 12 V the MOSFET supplies the required resistance and
we get the constant current according to the load.
Now the batteries are connected in parallel to increase
the current rating. The output from the DC source is
Fig 1. MOSFET driver
inverted as AC source using inverter.
Consider
III. VOLTAGE MULTIPLIER CELL TOPOLGY.
TABLE I. BATTERY VALUES Another alternative to overcome the limitations of
classical DC-DC converters for high performance and large
conversion ratio based applications is to develop voltage
Parameters Units multiplier cells [5] and integrate them with non-isolated DC-
DC converters. The voltage multiplier cell (Fig 8) increases
Internal resistance of MOSFET 0.6 Ω the static gain of a classical boost by a factor (M+1), where
M is the number of multiplier cells.
Load resistance 0.5 Ω
The output of the converter is equal to the output voltage
Battery Voltage 12 V of the classical boost multiplied by the factor (M+1) while
the switch voltage is always equal to the output voltage of
Current 10 A
the classical boost and is independent of the factor M. When
properly designed, it allows the power switch to operate
with zero current switching (ZCS) turn off and negative
When the battery in full voltage level consider 12 V
effects of the reverse recovery current of all diodes are
V = IR minimized. This characteristic reduces the converter
commutation losses, allowing the operation with high
R = 12/10 switching frequency and provides high efficiency. The
voltage multiplier cell topology is shown Fig 2

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical and Electronics (IJETEE – ISSN: 2320-9569) Vol. 5, Issue. 1, July-2013.
Mr. Karthick R.T, Dr. Ashok Kumar L. 110

A. Analysis of Single Phase Boost Converter B. Design Considerations of Single-Phase Boost

Better operation characteristics are obtained when the Converter
converter operates in continuous conduction mode (CCM). The main equations to design the single-phase converter
Thus the operation stages are presented for CCM operation are presented with an example, considering the following
and considering the use of only one multiplier stage (M=1). specifications.

1) First Stage: At the instant, switch S is turned-off TABLE II.DESIGN VALUES

and the energy stored in the input inductor is transferred to
the output capacitor through the diode and also transferred Parameters Units
to the multiplier capacitor through the diode. The resonant Output power 100 W.
inductor current increases linearly until it reaches the value Input Voltage 12 V.
of the input inductor current and the current in the diode is Output Voltage 100 V.
reduced at same proportion. The current variation can be
considered linear because the capacitor voltage increases Switching Frequency 50 kHz.
and decreases approximately at the same rate, maintaining Number of multiplier stages:(M) 1
constant the voltage applied to the resonant inductor.
1) Static Gain: The multiplier capacitor is charged with the
2) Second Stage: At the instant, the current in the
output voltage of the classical boost converter at the fourth
diode is zero. The resonant inductor current is equal to the
operation stage. As this capacitor is connected in series with
input inductor current during this stage (4) and the energy of
inductor the energy is transferred to this capacitor. The
the input inductor is transferred to the load through the
output capacitor is charged with the boost converter output
diode.
which is two times the output voltage. VCM1, VCM2 are
voltage across multiplier cell capacitors, VIN is input
3) Third Stage: At the instant, the switch S is
voltage, D is Duty Cycle
turned-on with ZCS commutation and the current in the
VCM2=VCM1=VIN[1/ (1-D)] (3.1)
resonant inductor and in the output diode reduce linearly to
VO=VCM2+ VIN[1/ (1-D)] (3.2)
zero at that instant. Thus the output diode also is blocked
with low reverse recovery current. The capacitor voltage can 2) Switch Duty-Cycle: The nominal duty is given as
be considered constant. below where M=1

4) Fourth Stage: When the output diode is blocked, D= [VO-VIN(M+1)]/VO (3.3)

the diode conducts transferring the energy stored in the
multiplier capacitor to the output capacitor, in a resonant D= (100-12(2))/100=0.76
way. When the energy stored in the capacitor is transferred
Where VO is output Voltage.
to the capacitor, the diode is blocked (instant). The average
voltage stored in the output capacitor is equal to the output 3) Switch Voltage: The maximum voltage in all
voltage of the classical boost converter plus the voltage. The diodes and power switch is equal to the CM1 voltage that is
average voltage of the capacitors equals to the output equal to the output of the classical boost is calculated by
voltage of the classical boost converter, and this is the given formula. The voltage in all components is half of the
maximum voltage applied in all diodes and power switch. output voltage.

5) Fifth Stage: At the instant, the current in the VCM1=VS=VD= VIN*[1/(1-D)] (3.4)
inductor becomes zero and the diode is blocked. The input
inductor stores energy as a conventional boost until turn-off =12*[1/(1-0.76)]
returning to the first stage. =50 V

The switch turn on is ZCS. The resonant inductor limits 4) Input Inductance: The design of the input
the current variation (di/dt) in all diodes, reducing the inductance is the same of the classical Boost converter
reverse recovery current. The voltage in all semiconductors where PO is output Power, IL is the Inductor current.
is half of the output voltage, considering a low voltage Considering a current ripple equal to 45% of the nominal
ripple in the multiplier capacitors. The configuration input inductance is equal to
proposed is used for an integration of the step-up dc–dc
IL= (PO/VIN)*0.45 = 3.75 A
converter with a full-bridge inverter.

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical and Electronics (IJETEE – ISSN: 2320-9569) Vol. 5, Issue. 1, July-2013.
Mr. Karthick R.T, Dr. Ashok Kumar L. 111

LIN=(VIN*D/IL*f)= 48 µH

5) Voltage Multiplier Capacitor CM: The minimum

capacitance of the voltage multiplier capacitor depends of
the maximum output power, the multiplier capacitor voltage
and the switching frequency. The maximum output power
considered in this example is equal to 150 W for a nominal
output power equal to 100 W.
CM1≥ (POMAX/ (VCM1)2*f) (3.5)

=1.2 µF

The maximum output power is limited by the energy

stored in the multiplier capacitor. If the load power is Fig 3. 100V DC Output
increased above of POMAX value, the output voltage will be
reduced, limiting the output power at the value of POMAX. The conveter voltage (see Fig.4) is 100 V DC. This
Therefore, the proposed converter will operate with constant voltage can be boosted for any voltage by incresing the
output power in an overload condition until the output multiplier cell.
voltage reaches the value of the output voltage of the
classical boost is calculated. Thus, for a too small multiplier
capacitance, the proposed structure will operate as a
classical boost converter and the voltage multiplier will
operate only as a non-dissipative snubber.

6) Resonant Inductor: The resonant inductor can be

defined by the maximum current variation (di/dt) at the turn-
on commutation, in order to minimize the commutation
losses. In the third operation stage presented there will be
reduction of the resonant inductor current at the switch turn-
on. The current variation is limited by the presence of the
resonant inductor, defined by Fig 4. 1A of Boost converter current
di/dt=(Vo-VCM2)/Lr (3.6)
The simulation result (see Fig.4) gives the current
Considering the maximum di/dt at the turn-on commutation of 1 A from converter. As per the design the circuit delivers
equal to 25 A/µs, the resonant inductance is defined by the current of 1 A.

Lr=(100-50)/(25*106)= 2 µH IV. INVERTER

An HBridge [6]or full bridge converter in Fig 5is a
switching configuration composed of four switches in an
arrangement that resembles an H. By controlling different
switches in the bridge, a positive, negative, or zero potential
voltage can be placed across a load. When this load is a
motor, these states correspond to forward, reverse, and off.
The use of an HBridge configuration to drive a motor.

The HBridge circuit consists of four switches

corresponding to high side left, high side right, low side left,
and low side right. There are four possible switch positions
Fig 2. Voltage Multiplier Cell
that can be used to obtain voltages across the load. These
positions are outlined in TABLE I. Note that all other
possibilities are omitted, as they would short circuit power
to ground, potentially causing damage to the device or
rapidly depleting the power supply.

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical and Electronics (IJETEE – ISSN: 2320-9569) Vol. 5, Issue. 1, July-2013.
Mr. Karthick R.T, Dr. Ashok Kumar L. 112

Fig 7. Inverter current of 10 Apk-pk

Fig 5. H Bridge inverter The AC current (see Fig.7) of 10 A is Simulated with

Dead Time PWM Pulse as mentioned earlier.

TABLE IV. SWITCHING CONFIGURATION

High High Low Low Voltage across

side side side side load
left right left right
ON OFF OFF ON POSITIVE
OFF ON ON OFF NEGATIVE
ON ON OFF OFF ZERO
OFF OFF ON ON ZERO

Fig 6. Inverter voltage of 100 V pk-pk

V. SOLAR CHARGE CONTROLLER

The AC Voltage (see Fig.6) of 100 V is Simulated with
Solar Charge controller is a device, which controls the
Dead Time PWM Pulse as mentioned earlier.
battery charging from solar cell and also controls the battery
drain by load. The simple Solar Charge controller checks the
TABLE III. SPECIFICATIONS OF
battery whether it requires charging and if yes it checks the
COMPONENTS
availability of solar power and starts charging the battery.
Whenever controller found that the battery has reached the
full charging voltage levels, it then stops the charging from
solar cell. On the other hand, when it found no solar power
available then it assumes that it is night time and switch on
the load. It keeps on the load until the battery reached to its
minimum voltage levels to prevent the battery dip-
discharge. Simultaneously Charge controller also gives the
indications like battery dip-discharge, load on, charging on
etc.Although any microcontroller with sufficient I/O is
suitable for the job but for most suitable microcontroller to
The above table gives the specification of the panel and choose, we have to keep in mind the following things. It
battery used in the system. should have at least two analog I/O for measurement of
Solar and Battery Voltage. Otherwise we have to add extra
AD converter for the job and it will increase the complexity
of the circuits and cost. It should have at least two digital
I/O, capable of switching High Current MOSFET for battery
charging and load. It should have at least three digital I/O
capable of driving direct LEDs, otherwise we have to add
extra LED driver for the purpose. It should have minimum
circuit requirements for its self-operation to cut down the
cost.
VI. RESULTS

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical and Electronics (IJETEE – ISSN: 2320-9569) Vol. 5, Issue. 1, July-2013.
Mr. Karthick R.T, Dr. Ashok Kumar L. 113

The Stand-Alone Solar Power Generation System was The AC current of 10 A is Simulated with Dead Time
designed for a 100 V, 1 kW application operating from 12 V PWM Pulse as mentioned earlier
input. The PWM signals were generated and controlled
using microcontroller. PWM signals were generated using VII. CONCLUSION
dead time concept, since to protect the MOSFET. We As mentioned in section II the constant current discharge
avoided the core saturation problem by doubling the is connected to battery in order to minimize the sudden raise
switching frequency and reducing the inductance values in in current from battery when it is connected to load. It may
the filter. Through proper component selection in another drain the battery soon. Thus it should be controlled. The
revision, the switching frequency could be returned to 50 control signals for the switches are given from Atmega8
kHz. With the exception of the filter problems mentioned controller. There are three LED’s connected to the system to
above, the circuit is functioning as designed and correctly mention the status of Battery. The Stand-Alone Solar Power
inverts a DC voltage to an AC voltage. The circuit showed Generation System was designed for an input voltage of 12
in Fig 8 is the solar power generation system with constant V 100 V, 1 kW application.
current discharge. There are two switches one for charging This proposed methodology is normally used in battery
battery from panel and other is for connecting battery to manufacturing industries and E-vehicles manufactures
load when no sun or battery is charged fully. where the battery is discharged using discharging coil.

REFERENCES
[1] Q. Zhao and F. C. Lee, “High-efficiency, high step up
dc–dc converters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.
18, no. 1, pp. 65–73, Jan.2003.
[2] L. L. Pfitscher, L. C. Franco, and R. Gules, “A new high
static gain non-isolated dc–dc converter,” in Proc. IEEE
Power Electron. Spec.Conf. (PESC’03), Acapulco,
México, 2003, pp. 1367–1372.
Fig 8. An integrated inverter with solar charge [3] O. Abutbul, A. Gherlitz, Y. Berkovich, and A. Ioinovici,
controller “Step-Up switching-mode converter with high voltage
gain using a switched-capacitor circuit,” IEEE Trans.
Circuits Syst. I, vol. 50, no. 8, pp.1098–1102, Aug. 2003.
[4] Axelrod, Y. Berkovich, and A. Ioinovici,
“Transformerless dc–dc converters with a very high dc
line-to-load voltage ratio,” in Proc. IEEEInt. Symp.
Circuits Syst., 2003, pp. 435–438.
[5] Marcos Prudente, Luciano L. Pfitscher, Gustavo
Emmendoerfer, Eduardo F Romaneli,and Roger Gules
"voltage multiplier cells applied to non isolated DC-DC
Converters"IEEETrans.Power Electron., vol.23,
No.2,March-2008, pp.871-887.
Fig 9. Inverter voltage
[6] Hart, D. (1997). Introduction to Power Electronics.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hal
The AC Voltage of 100 V is Simulated with Dead Time
PWM Pulse as mentioned earlier
Mr.Karthick R.T. was born on 21st May 1988 in Salem
India. He completed his graduate programme in Electronics
and Communication Engineering in 2009 from Anna
University Chennai India. He did his post-graduation in
Power Electronics and Drives from PSG College of
Technology Coimbatore India in the year 2012. After
completion of his UG he was worked as a Junior Production
Engineer at Anand Electronics - Hosur for one year then
after his PG he was worked as a Production Executive at
Samsung Electronics – Chennai for three months. Now he is
Fig 10 Inverter current working as an Assistant Professor at PSG college of

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical and Electronics (IJETEE – ISSN: 2320-9569) Vol. 5, Issue. 1, July-2013.
Mr. Karthick R.T, Dr. Ashok Kumar L. 114

Technology Coimbatore India in EEE (Sandwich). His

major research work area is Renewable Energy.

Dr. Ashok Kumar l was born on 7th April 1976 in

Coimbatore, India. He completed his graduate programme
in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 1997 from
University of Madras, India. He did his post-graduation
from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India in the
year 2005 with Electrical Machines as his major. He
completed his MBA from IGNOU, New Delhi in the year
2008 with Specialization in HRD. He completed his PhD in
the field of Wearable Electronics from Anna University,
Chennai. After completion of his B.E. Degree he joined as
Project Engineer in Serval Paper Boards Ltd., Coimbatore
(now renamed as ITC unit, Kovai). Presently he is Associate
Professor in Department of EEE, PSG College of
Technology and also doing research work in Wearable
Electronics, Smart Textiles, Solar PV and Wind Energy
Systems

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Electrical and Electronics (IJETEE – ISSN: 2320-9569) Vol. 5, Issue. 1, July-2013.