Anis, W.R.; El-Samahy, A.E.-S.M.
July 1997
Fuel and Energy Abstracts, vol 38-4, p. 244
The paper describes a conventional photovoltaic (PV) system driving a DC load consisting of a PV array, storage battery, a battery voltage regulator (BVR) and a load. According to this arrangement, the load voltage is equal to the battery voltage. The battery voltage varies according to its state of charge (SOC). Critical loads, such as some communication systems, require a regulated voltage, hence conventional battery voltage variations are not accepted for these applications. The typical solution of this problem is to operate the PV system at a higher voltage and to include a control circuit that introduces passive elements so that the load is operating within the allowed limits. Such a solution leads to power dissipation in the passive elements and this presents power loss. An alternative solution based on a microprocessor that keeps the load voltage at the predetermined level is discussed. The proposed technique avoids the power loss and therefore required PV array size becomes smaller improving the system economics.
Source: www.sciencedirect.com