Electrical – Solar panel + battery + DC load

battery-chargingdcsolar cell

Let's suppose there is a battery which powers a DC load. There is a solar panel which gives power from time to time. How do I connect them all together so that the solar panel powers the load and charges the battery when the sun comes out and the load is powered by the battery the rest of the time?

Best Answer

Basically, you would need two DC-DC converters, one would charge the battery from the solar panel, and the second one would power your load from the battery.

To be efficient, the solar-battery converter would need to implement an MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithm, and both converters would have to manage battery to avoid Overvoltage/Overcurrent issues.

The exact topologies depend on your Solar panel, battery and load Voltages.