Solar panels are being increasingly used in street lighting applications to make for environment friendly designs by reducing the dependency on conventional energy. The use of High Brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs) for illumination in streetlights further increases their energy efficiency. Figure 1 shows a picture of a solar panel powered street light with high brightness LEDs. These systems employ lead acid batteries that get charged by solar panels during the day. The energy from the batteries is then used to drive the LEDs in the night.
Solar panels consist of photovoltaic cells that use light energy from the sun to generate electricity through photovoltaic effect. Maximum Power Point Tracking, referred to as MPPT, is an electronic system that operates the photovoltaic modules in solar panels to produce maximum power. MPPT varies the electrical operating point of the modules and enables them to deliver maximum available power. MPPT can be used in conjunction with a mechanical tracking system, but the two systems are completely different
Cypress’ MPPT Solar Charge Controller is a battery charger and load controller with integrated LED driver, which features a smart tracking algorithm that maximizes energy harvest from solar panels. It is designed using Cypress’ PowerPSoC and uses the device’s integrated hysteretic controllers, its dedicated modulators, and PSoC core to implement the MPPT smart tracking algorithm, as well as the constant current LED driver circuit.
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CY8CLED0xx0x - PowerPSoC® Firmware Design Guidelines, Lighting Control Interfaces
CY8CLED0xx0x PowerPSoC® – Hardware Design Guidelines
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Integrated MPPT Solar Charger plus LED Driver using Cypress' PowerPSoC (Third Party board)
CY3268 PowerPSoC Lighting Starter Kit
CY3267 PowerPSoC Lighting Evaluation Kit