Battery Management Solutions

Emerging Power Applications

Solar Charging
Photovoltaic technologies have evolved
that can now provide more cost-effective
and efficient energy harvesting from the
sun. Most solar harvesting today uses
high-power installations that provide
supplemental AC power to the home or
to commercial buildings and are gener-
ally tied to the utility grid. However, much
of the world is still not yet tied to the
grid, or the grid is unreliable, or being
tethered to the AC power supply is just
not practical. In these applications, using
the sun to charge a battery that supplies
power to off-grid applications is a more
practical solution. For these applica-
tions, a trade-off between cost and PV
efficiency is often required. Maximizing
power from the panel is balanced with
the cost and size of the overall system.
The diagrams below illustrate two
e
xamples of low-cost solar-charger
applications where the battery charger is
integrated with simple circuitry to maxi-
mize the power point from the solar
panel as well as with circuitry for load
regulation. Simple solar streetlights or
solar lanterns can be developed by add-
ing devices such as LED drivers. The
implementation of a USB switch with a
boost converter can create a simple
solar charger for portable devices. Other
applications can implement motor driv-
ers for solar-powered fans or water
pumps. These are but a few of the
options enabled by TIs new family of
solar-charger ICs.

Solar
Panel
bq24650
Charger with LED
Input-Based Driver
Dynamic Power
Management

Solar
Panel
bq24210 TPS2500
Single-Cell USB Power
Solar Switch with
Charger Boost
Converter

Battery Management Solutions Guide 4 Texas Instruments 2011