What is MPPT?
MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) is a key technology to harvest the maximum amount of energy from a solar panel.
As sunlight intensity varies depending on the climate, time of the day, and seasonal change, the output voltage and output current of the solar panel under the sun also changes.
The output power from a solar panel is the mathematical product of its output voltage and output current.
Typically, it takes a sophisticated digital signal processor (DSP) to try, sample, and calculate muchoperating voltage and current combinations before a maximum power point is identified. This kind of perturb-and observe MPPT algorithm is time-consuming and, in many cases, may lock into an incorrect operating point. In contrast, OPTI-Solar uses an advanced analog MPPT algorithm. It does rely on the conventional perturb-and-observe time-consuming method. It locks in the maximum power point in less than 1000th of a second. With this ultra-fast MPPT algorithm, the solar charger can spend 99.9% of the time charging the battery and harvesting the maximum power possible from the solar panel. It uses only 0.1% of the time to update the present sunlight condition and re-calculate the maximum power point. As illustrated below, solar MPPT can track the maximum power combination of 17.2V and 5.8A(99.7W). The charge controller without MPPT can only obtain a power combination of 12V and 6.2A(69.6W).
As sunlight intensity varies depending on the climate, time of the day, and seasonal change, the output voltage and output current of the solar panel under the sun also changes.
The output power from a solar panel is the mathematical product of its output voltage and output current.
Typically, it takes a sophisticated digital signal processor (DSP) to try, sample, and calculate muchoperating voltage and current combinations before a maximum power point is identified. This kind of perturb-and observe MPPT algorithm is time-consuming and, in many cases, may lock into an incorrect operating point. In contrast, OPTI-Solar uses an advanced analog MPPT algorithm. It does rely on the conventional perturb-and-observe time-consuming method. It locks in the maximum power point in less than 1000th of a second. With this ultra-fast MPPT algorithm, the solar charger can spend 99.9% of the time charging the battery and harvesting the maximum power possible from the solar panel. It uses only 0.1% of the time to update the present sunlight condition and re-calculate the maximum power point. As illustrated below, solar MPPT can track the maximum power combination of 17.2V and 5.8A(99.7W). The charge controller without MPPT can only obtain a power combination of 12V and 6.2A(69.6W).
