Proceedings of 2018 International Conference on Emerging Trends and Innovations in Engineering and Technological Research (ICETIETR)

Solar Charger for Electric Vehicles

Revathi B. Sivanandhan S Vaishakh Prakash
Department of EEE Department of EEE Department of EEE
Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering,
Coimbatore Coimbatore Coimbatore
revathireka888@gmail.com

Arun Ramesh. Isha T.B Saisuriyaa G

Department of EEE Department of EEE Department of EEE
Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering,
Coimbatore Coimbatore Coimbatore

Abstract- Our dependence on fossil fuels is drastically re-
duced by the combined use of solar energy and Electric Vehi-
cle (EV) charging. In this paper, a solar charger for electric
vehicle is designed and developed. A dc-dc boost converter is
employed to boost the solar panel voltage to station battery
voltage and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is done
to optimize the output from solar panel. A buck converter is
used to step down the station battery voltage to electric vehicle
battery voltage. The constant voltage and constant current
methods of charging are used to charge the vehicle battery. A
complete simulation study of the system is carried out in the
SIMULINK environment of MATLAB.
II. CHARGING MODES
The solar panel charges a station battery by operating at
maximum power point. This station battery charges an
electric vehicle battery through buck converter by CC
and CV charging modes as shown in Fig.1. The
feedback loop is the CC and CV charging mode that
senses the voltage across battery and the current
through it.

Keywords—constant current method, constant voltage

method, MPPT, buck converter, boost converter.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric vehicles are the future of transporatation since
it reduces the use of fossil fuels to a larger extent. Fig1.block diagram of solar charger
Developed and developing countries are encouraging use
of electric vehicles due to its efficiency and supposed green A. CC mode of charging
technology. Though chargingof electric vehicles is Until the SOC of battery reaches 95% of its total charge,
supposed to be eco-friendly, reports deny it. As charging CC mode of charging is done. After it reaches 95%
the electric vehicle battery is again from grid which is SOC, CV charging mode is done. In CC mode as shown
energised by the use of fossil fuels, it can’t be eco-friendly in Fig.2, load current is constantly compared with refer-
any more. Harnessing the solar power to charge an electric ence current and the difference (error) is given to a PID
vehicle battery is the most eco-friendly alternative to controller. The output signal from PID is compared with
charge an electric vehicle. To optimise the power output a saw tooth wave by a comparator and the duty cycle of
from solar panel, Maximum Power Point Tracking(MPPT) output wave varies accordingly [2]. This output from
is implemented. MPPT maintains the operation of the panel comparator is used to drive the buck converter.
at maximum power point so that the efficiency of the panel
is increased.
The Lithium-Ion on board electric vehicle battery needs
to be charged whiile maintaining the voltage level as
specified. For this we use two methods, constant current
(CC) and constant voltage (CV) method of charging. In CC
method of charging, a constant current is applied until the
battery reaches an SOC near to the rated value. Then, the
CV method of charging is done until the State of Charge
(SOC) reaches hundred percentage. The output pulse from
feedback loops(CC and CV) are used to drive the MOSFET
of buck converter to regulate the ouput voltage of the
electric vehicle battery.

Fig2. CC charging mode

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 Proceedings of 2018 International Conference on Emerging Trends and Innovations in Engineering and Technological Research (ICETIETR)
B. CV mode of charging
In CV mode of charging, the voltage across battery is
constantly compared with a reference value of 12V. The dif-
ference in the error is used to calculate the reference current
and this current is compared with the load current. The dif-
ference is fed to a PID controller and the output from PID is
compared with saw tooth wave and the duty cycle of output
wave varies accordingly. This is given as the gate pulse for
MOSFET in buck converter as shown in Fig.3. When the
SOC of battery reaches 95%, a relational operator and a
switch toggles from CC mode to CV mode of charging [2].
Fig.3. CV charging mode
III. DESIGN OF POWER CIRCUIT
A. Design of buck converter
The electric vehicle battery specifications are
12V,7Ah and is given C5 charge rating by the
manufacturer[7]. So, the input current to a battery should
be around,
7/5=1.4A
So the reference current should be 1.4A in the CC
mode of charging.
The station battery is designed to charge 4 vehicles at
the same time. Therefore 12V*4=48V.
The station battery specification becomes 48V, 7Ah
The load is the electric vehicle battery 12V, 7Ah
The load has a resistance(R) of 1Ω
The switching frequency, f =2kHz
The source is the station battery 48V, 7AH
Duty Ratio=12/48=0.25
Inductor = Lmin=(1-D)R/2f=240µH
L=Lmin*1.25=300µH
C=(1-D)/8L(ΔVo/Vo)f=1.5mF
B. Design of solar panel
The panels must be selected as per the rating of the bat-
tery [4]. The peak sun hours is estimated to be 4 hours for
Tamil Nadu. The efficiency of battery is estimated to be
77%.
Energy required by station battery= 48V*7Ah=336Wh
Energy from panel = 336Wh /efficiency
= 336/0.77=436.8Wh
Peak watt of panel = 436.8/peak sun hours
= 436.8/4=109.2Wp
Panels used- two numbers -16.5V, 68W
C .Design of boost converter
The voltage received from panel is 16.5V. To charge
the station battery which is rated at 48V, the voltage re-
quired is 48V. So, the voltage output from the panel
needs to be stepped up. For this purpose, a boost con-
verter is used. The boost converter is designed to boost
the voltage from 16.5V to 48V required by station bat-
tery.
1-D=16/48=0.25
L=Lmin(1.5)=1.65µH
Lmin=D(1-D)2R/2f=1.1µH
C=D/R(ΔV0/V0)f=550mF
IV. DEVELOPMENT OF MAXIMUM POWER POINT
TRACKING
Solar power is a variable source of energy. This is due
to varying conditions of sunshine and temperature as the
climate is highly variable. As a result, the efficiency of
solar panels is low. To obtain maximum power from the
panel, it needs to be operated at the maximum power
point. The MPP is at a certain voltage, and locating this
point is the use of the MPPT. There are a number of
methods to implement MPPT, such as perturb and ob-
serve incremental conductance, current sweep and con-
stant voltage. Here, Incremental Conductance method is
used. Flowchart of this method is given in Fig. 5.
Fig. 4(a) PV characteristic curve(I to V)
4(b)PV characteristic curve(P to V)
A. Incremental Conductance method
To ensure the panel is operating at MPP,
maximum power point tracking is used. In the incre-
mental conductance method, the maximum power point
is estimated by comparing the incremental conductance
(ΔI/ΔV) to the array conductance (I/V). If the compari-
son is null, then the panel is operating at MPP. If there
is a difference, based on the polarity, the point of oper-
ation is moved to the left or right until the MPP is ob-
tained. Inc is taken as 0.01.
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 Proceedings of 2018 International Conference on Emerging Trends and Innovations in Engineering and Technological Research (ICETIETR)

From figure 6(b) it is seen that current varies from 1.4A to

2.2A [3]. This is as per the manufacturer specifications for
maximum allowable current to the battery. The voltage is
seen to be nearly 13V [3] as seen in Fig. 6(a) which is the
charging voltage of the battery. The SOC of the battery is
seen to increase at a faster rate than in CV mode and on
calculation it is seen that the SOC will reach 100% in 5
hours as desired.
B. CV charging

Fig.7 (a) voltage(V) of the electric vehicle battery in CV mode

Fig.5 Incremental conductance

V. SIMULATION RESULTS Fig.7 (b) Current (A) of the electric vehicle battery

The proposed solar charging system is simulated using

MATLAB Simulink. The output of each part of the entire
system has been simulated separately and the outputs are
depicted in Fig.6, Fig. 7 and Fig.8.

A.CC charging Fig. 7 (c) SOC of electric vehicle battery in CV mode

From Fig. 7(b) simulation results, it is seen that the current

has reduced to milliamperes (mA) [3]and the voltage is
maintained constant at 13V(fully charged battery volt-
age)[3], indicating constant voltage charging where voltage
is maintained constant as shown in Fig.7 (a) and current is
very small. The SOC increases at a much slower rate when
compared to CC mode of charging.
Fig.6(a) Simulation of voltage across vehicle battery in CC mode

Fig.8(a) station battery current(A ) as a function of time(s)

Fig.6 (b) Simulation of current(A) through electric vehicle in CC
mode

Fig. 6(c)SOC (%) as a function of Time (s) in CC mode

Fig.8(b) Simulation of voltage (V) of station battery

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 Proceedings of 2018 International Conference on Emerging Trends and Innovations in Engineering and Technological Research (ICETIETR)

[5] Naotaka Kawamura, Mitsuharu Muta “Development of Solar

Fig.8 (c) SOC (%) of station battery
Fig. 8 is the output of the station battery, from Fig.8(a)the
battery is seen to charge and discharge in the alternate cy-
cles. It charges from the solar panel and it discharges to the
station battery in CC mode while the station battery only
charges when the vehicle battery goes to CV mode. From
the Fig.8 (b), the voltage is around 52V since a battery
charges to a voltage higher than its nominal voltage. The
SOC increases very slowly as shown in Fig.8(c), thus the
station battery is charged.
Charging System for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Electric
Vehicles” Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA),
International Conference (2012)
[6] Ahmad Musa, Leonardo H. Pratomo, Felix Y. Setiono “Design and
Implementation of Solar Power as Battery Charger using
Incremental Conductance Current Control Method” 1st
International Conference on Information Technology, Computer
and Electrical Engineering (ICITACEE) (2014)
[7] EEMB lithium-ion battery data sheet, EEMB Co.,Ltd, California,
U.S.A .2010
[8] Allegro ACS712 datasheet, Allegro MicroSystems,
Massachusetts,U.S.A.2017
[9] EKT ArduinoVoltage Sensor, EKT, China.
[10] International RectifierIRFZ44N, International Rectifier, California,
U.S.A.
[11] H. Suresh et al., "Efficient charging of battery and
production of power from solar energy," 2014 International
Conference on Embedded Systems (ICES), Coimbatore,
2014, pp. 231-237.

From the rate of charging from the simulation, the bat-

tery charging time can be calculated.
Vehicle battery charging time (0-100%) = 5 hours (as per
manufacturer specification, C5 rating)
Station battery charging time (0-100%) = 53 minutes (when
no load is connected)
Station battery charging time (when it is simultaneously
discharging) =3 hours

VII. CONCLUSION

The complete solar charger circuit is simulated and the

battery is seen to charge as required. Hence, solar power is
used as the power source to charge the battery. By imple-
menting solar power as a source to charge the batteries
Such a system would also help to expand the grid snice the
of electric vechicles, non-renewable resources like fossil
fuels, which are used in conventional vechicles can be con-
served. Vechicles have their own sustainable method of
charging, which frees up existing poer plants for other loads
of electric vehicles, non-renewable resources like
fossil fuels, which are used in conventional vehicles can be

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