A 300 VA Low-Cost Efficient Standalone Photovoltaic System for Rural Applications

With the ever-growing need for electricity, solar energy is becoming increasingly relevant. In rural India where the availability of grid is a challenge, the use of standalone PV systems is an attractive solution. This paper realizes a standalone PV system by combining all the power electronic units; maximum power point tracking controller, battery charger and inverter into one single unit. A novel control for the standalone operation of the PV system is proposed with minimal sensor requirements. The proposed control systematically detects different modes of operation based on the PV panel output, battery state of charge and the load demand. A prototype of 300 W standalone system capable of achieving an overall peak efficiency of greater than 85 % is demonstrated.