Harnessing the sun’s energy has been on the rise over the past few decades, and the technology is finally at point where it can start to proliferate to homes and emerging markets. While the solar market in the developed countries is expected to grow at a modest pace from 30GW to 40GW installed capacity over the next 10 years, the growth in the developing countries is expected to more than double from 15GW to over 30GW installed capacity over the same timeframe. Less stable grid infrastructure, poor reach into the rural and distant areas, and faster growth in population are the forces driving such growth.
Our highly efficient solar power demo allows our customers to take advantage of this growth with reference designs for converting solar energy into electricity, storing it in batteries and converting it to AC power for use with common appliances at home and work. Our Solar Micro Inverter Development Kit based on our C2000™ TMS320F28035 microcontroller (MCU) is paired with a lead acid battery charging solution based on TI’s ultra-low-power MSP430F5172 MCU + full-bridge driver SM72295 maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller/charger to allow the collection and storage of solar energy.
Here’s how it works:
1) The energy from the sun is collected on the solar panel and converted to a usable DC voltage by the MSP430F5172 MCU and SM72295 MPPT controller/charger.
2) The energy is then stored in lead acid batteries by the MSP430™ MCU paired with SVA power management products such as the SM72295 full bridge driver and DC-DC regulators.
3) When demanded, the power is converted from DC into AC power that can be used in the home with the C2000 real-time control MCU paired with one of TI’s full bridge drivers. TI’s SM72295 integrates two half-bridge drivers with fast switching 100V bootstrap diodes and programmable current sense amplifiers.
This type of system is popular in both grid-tied and off-grid solar micro inverter systems. Specifically, this system can support up to a 1 kVA inverter for high-power solar panels. TI has a wide variety of reference designs and system block diagrams to highlight similar applications.
Come check out TI’s demo of our solar charger and micro-inverter for emerging market homes at the Electronica show Nov. 11– 14 in Munich, Germany at booth A4.420! Be sure to say hi when you stop by!
For more information:
- C2000 real-time MCU tools for solar power applications
- C2000 Solar DC/DC Converter with MPPT TI Design (TIDM-SOLAR-DCDC)
- C2000 Solar DC/AC Single Phase Inverter TI Design (TIDM-SOLAR-ONEPHINV)
- Grid-tied Solar Micro Inverter with MPPT TI Design, including the SM72295 and the LM5017 (TIDM-SOLARUINV)
- Solar MPPT Charge Controller TI Design, including an MSP430 MCU and SM72295controller/charger (TIDA-00120)
- Solar Power Energy Harvester Reference Design Using a Super Cap TI Design (TIDA-00242)
