Specifications

The maximum point power tracker that was eventually chosen for the project was the

Solar Regulator, 30A MPPT rated up to 1.2KW that would be used in conjuction with the

solar array, and an additional MPPT system that was included with the wind turbine.

Between the two combined systems the power from both the micro wind turbine and the

solar array should be at peak efficiencies when it is sent to supply a charge for the

battery. Both can be seen below with the Solar Regulator to the left and the counterpart

Sunforce MPPT to the right.

Figure 41 – Spec’d MPPT Charge Controllers

Permission Pending

At first the exorbitant cost of the compared maximum power point tracking systems

were a major turn off from the use of MPPT technology. However the discovery of the

Solar Regulator with a more than required thirty amps rating with the maximum power

point tracking technology for only one hundred and seventy eight dollars MPPT became

a much more feasible option for use in the project, and with Sunforce supplying their

own maximum power point tracking system with their wind turbine that was going to be

bought from them all of the angles in power generation were covered and the charge

from the outputs was going to able to be regulated in the most efficient way possible.

The use of two charge regulators although expensive was deemed to be a necessity.

At first it was believed that the charge controller provided from Sunforce would be

sufficient in regulating the supply of charge going into the battery. However after further

research only using one charge regulator would have proven to be a mistake. Because

the maximum power point tracking system tracks the output coming out of a power

source and supplies additional voltage and current depending on the output of the

sources compared with the energy across the battery terminals. If there were a scenario

where the wind turbine was producing a higher amount of energy than the solar panels

at a given moment in time the higher potential in the wind turbine would cause a surge

of reverse polarity current into the solar panels that would eventually wear down and

damage the panels.

Alternatively another option around this would be to add additional switching circuitry to

only allow the energy source with the highest potential to be the only active source at a