Alternative Energy Solutions - Home Solar Power System
In the last 10 years, homes with rooftop solar arrays have gone from curiosity to commonplace. Getting solar systems in the mainstream residential market has proved to be challenging as it has traditionally been an expensive technology to implement. But the technology has matured over the years and this has meant that the long term cost-cutting benefits easily outweigh the initial cost of implementation. Besides, it provides clean energy with no greenhouse-gas emissions.A typical solar power system uses arrays of photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight directly into electricity which is then stored into high-energy density batteries via a charge controlling circuitry.
The charge controllers employ a MPPT (Maximum Power Point tracking) scheme which is necessary for any solar powered system to detect and correct the variations in the current-voltage characteristics of a solar module. MPPT based charge controllers force the solar panels to operate at a voltage close to maximum power point in order to extract the maximum available power. MPPT allows users to use PV module with a higher voltage output than operating voltage of battery system. An energy efficient DC – AC conversion circuitry then performs the conversion of the DC output into a clean sinusoidal 50 or 60 Hz AC voltage that can then be applied to the off-grid home electrical network commercial or fed into an electrical grid.