fishmastaflex
Newbie level 3
Hey there,
My project scope involves harvesting the energy from qty2 low-voltage high-current solar cells (I have taken two of these single cells from a 265W full-size panel). I am locked into these solar cells and cannot change them. These cells have the following specifications:
Voc = 630mV
Isc = 9A
Vmpp = 510mV
Impp = 8.42A
mpp = maximum power point
So, the above is my potential input to the power supply, and obviously this input would be varying dependent on irradiance. I plan on connecting the 2 cells in series, giving 1.2V @ 8.42A maximum potential input.
The output of the supply would go directly to a BQ24195 power management and battery charger IC that accepts an input range of 4-12V. Current can trickle in, but considering these solar cells are nearly 4W, having at least 2A available would be fine.
A couple ideas are wrangling in my head:
Obviously I would like to make this as simple as possible with basic off-the-shelf components. My biggest fear is the high-current (8.4A) in the solar panels will damage components and reduce the life of the project. I could limit this current with a resistor, but then the resistor would fail.
Are there any other circuit types that might work with this specific application?
Thanks for reading!
My project scope involves harvesting the energy from qty2 low-voltage high-current solar cells (I have taken two of these single cells from a 265W full-size panel). I am locked into these solar cells and cannot change them. These cells have the following specifications:
Voc = 630mV
Isc = 9A
Vmpp = 510mV
Impp = 8.42A
mpp = maximum power point
So, the above is my potential input to the power supply, and obviously this input would be varying dependent on irradiance. I plan on connecting the 2 cells in series, giving 1.2V @ 8.42A maximum potential input.
The output of the supply would go directly to a BQ24195 power management and battery charger IC that accepts an input range of 4-12V. Current can trickle in, but considering these solar cells are nearly 4W, having at least 2A available would be fine.
A couple ideas are wrangling in my head:
- Joule thief with regulated output
- Custom energy harvesting IC tailored to small solar panels (the problem with these ICs are that they have a maximum allowable input current that my solar cells cannot be directly connected to).
- DC-DC converter IC (I've looked at a couple, but there haven't found anything that suits this application well)
Obviously I would like to make this as simple as possible with basic off-the-shelf components. My biggest fear is the high-current (8.4A) in the solar panels will damage components and reduce the life of the project. I could limit this current with a resistor, but then the resistor would fail.
Are there any other circuit types that might work with this specific application?
Thanks for reading!