Maximum Power Point Tracking with Boost Converter for Solar Laptop Charger

Abstract

Off-grid energy solution is becoming a necessity in our country with the unstable electricity supply from the utility provider. Laptop is an essential electronic appliance for individuals, schools and businesses, which you can't afford to be down on power. Remote areas are often challenged by consistent interrupted power supply, thereby delaying or hindering certain work that needs to be done with laptops. Hence, off-grid solar energy solutions is proposed to charge laptop batteries and various electronics with similar specifications for remote area dwellers. However, solar panels are very inefficient when directly connected to load. Therefore, application of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and pulse width modulation (PWM) to connect solar panels to laptop charger is presented in this work. This was achieved in this work through simulation and hardware implementation.