Solar mobile charger

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

The innovation of solar chargers for mobile phones as a product of research

and development has been prompted by the challenge to uncover other possible
means of charging mobile phones especially where and when power supply
becomes erratic or totally inaccessible. This challenge has made solar charging
which is one of the expedient alternative methods for charging mobile devices a
necessity. Although this charging idea at present has not been widely known
and accepted in this part of the world: specifically in Nigeria, it is the solution
to the erratic and incessant interruption of power supply to technological
equipments – mobile phones being our focus. This fact is further substantiated
by the simple fact that Nigeria is located in the tropics, which are areas that
are typically known to have an abundant supply of sunlight all year round. The
solar phone charger is inevitable in Nigeria as a case study, considering the
facts that Nigeria is located in the tropics and at present, many parts of the
country are suffering from an unstable, unreliable, erratic and severely
unavailability electric power supply which poses a great deal of danger to
electronic and electrical appliances and consequently shortens their life span,
or incapacitates them at the most critical moments when they are needed to
perform the functions why they were invented or manufactured in the first
place. Solar energy is the energy produced directly by the sun and collected
elsewhere, normally the Earth. The sun creates its energy through a
thermonuclear process . The process creates heat and electromagnetic
radiation.

Only a very small fraction of the total radiation produced reaches the Earth.
The radiation that does reaches the Earth is the indirect source of nearly
every type of energy used today. The radiation that does reach the Earth is
the indirect source of nearly every type of energy used today. The exceptions
are geothermal energy, and nuclear fission and fusion. Even fossil fuels owe

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their origins to the sun; they were once living plants and animals whose life
was dependent upon the sun.

Much of the world's required energy can be supplied directly by solar power.
More still can be provided indirectly. The practicality of doing so will be
examined, as well as the benefits and drawbacks. In addition, the uses solar
energy is currently applied to will be noted.The sun is a star made up of
hydrogen and helium gas and it radiates an enormous amount of energy
every second. Solar cell works on the principle of photovoltaic effect.
Sunlight is composed of photons, or "packets" of energy. These photons
contain various amounts of energy corresponding to the different
wavelengths of light. When a photon is absorbed, the energy of the photon is
transferred to an electron in an atom of the cell.

Advantages &Applications

In solar mobile charger ripples will not be there as we use DC power directly to
charge the mobile,Battery life is more as high voltages are not
developed,Versatility of Solar mobile charger is high,Life of the battery will be
high as we use solar mobile charger,Adaptability is high.

Cost Effective: Compared to the other mobile chargers, the solar chargers
are cost effective as it absorbs power from the sun. It does not require
electric power

Versatile: It is also known to be versatile as it can be used for all types of

mobile phones

Uninterrupted Power Supply: One of the greatest advantages of solar

mobile phone charger is that it can be used to charge mobiles even during
power outages.

Emergency Purposes: Another benefit is that it hardly requires any electrical

outlet. It can therefore be used during emergencies and outdoor purposes.

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Chapter 02

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 SOLAR CELL:

Photovoltaic cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such
as silicon. An atom of silicon has 14 electrons, arranged in three different
shells.

The outer shell has 4 electrons. Therefore a silicon atom will always look for
ways to fill up its last shell, and to do this, it will share electrons with four
nearby atoms. Now we use phosphorus(with 5 electrons in its outer shell).
Therefore when it combines with silicon, one electron remains free.

Fig 2.1 solar cell working

When energy is added to pure silicon it can cause a few electrons to break free
of their bonds and leave their atoms. These are called free carriers, which
move randomly around the crystalline lattice looking for holes to fall into and
carrying an electrical current.

However, there are so few, that they aren't very useful. But our impure silicon
with phosphorous atoms takes a lot less energy to knock loose one of our
"extra“ electrons because they aren't tied up in a bond with any neighboring
atoms. As a result, we have a lot more free carriers than we would have in pure
silicon to become N-type silicon.

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The other part of a solar cell is doped with the element boron(with 3 electrons
in its outer shell)to become P-type silicon.

Now, when this two type of silicon interact, an electric field forms at the
junction which prevents more electrons to move to P-side.

When photon hits solar cell, its energy breaks apart electron-hole pairs. Each
photon with enough energy will normally free exactly one electron, resulting in
a free hole as well. If this happens close enough to the electric field, this causes
disruption of electrical neutrality, and if we provide an external current path,
electrons will flow through the P side to unite with holes that the electric field
sent there, doing work for us along the way. The electron flow provides the
current, and the cell's electric field causes a voltage.

2.2 PV CELL SPECIFICATION:

The term "photovoltaic" comes from the Greek (photo) means "light", and
"voltaic", means electric ,from the name of the Italian physicist “VOLTA "after
whom a unit of electro-motive force, the volt is named.

The sun is a star made up of hydrogen and helium gas and it radiates an
enormous amount of energy every second .

A photovoltaic cell is an electrical device that convert the energy of light

directly into electricity by photovoltaic effect.

Photovoltaics is the field of technology and research related to the practical

application of photovoltaic cells in producing electricity from light, though it
is often used specifically to refer to the generation of electricity from
sunlight. Cells can be described as photovoltaic even when the light source is
not necessarily sunlight (lamplight, artificial light, etc.). In such cases the
cell is sometimes used as a photodetector (for example infrared
detectors,detecting light or other electromagnetic radiation near the
visible range, or measuring light intensity.

The operation of a photovoltaic (PV) cell requires 3 basic attributes:

The absorption of light, generating either electron-hole pairs or excitons.

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The separation of charge carriers of opposite types.

The separate extraction of those carriers to an external circuit.

In contrast, a solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight,

for the purpose of either direct heating or indirect electrical power
generation. "Photoelectrolytic cell" (photoelectrochemical cell), on the other
hand, refers either a type of photovoltaic cell (like that developed by A.E.
Becquerel and modern dye-sensitized solar cells or a device that splits
water directly into hydrogen and oxygen using only solar illumination.

Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number

of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material.

Materials presently used for photovoltaics

include monocrystallinesilicon, polycrystallinesilicon, amorphous
silicon, cadmium telluride, andcopper indium gallium selenide/sulfide. Due
to the increased demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of
solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced considerably in recent
years.

Solar photovoltaics is a sustainable energy source. By the end of 2011, a

total of 71.1 GW had been installed, sufficient to generate 85 TWh/year.And
by end of 2012, the 100 GW installed capacity milestone was achieved.

Solar photovoltaics is now, after hydro and wind power, the third most
important renewable energy source in terms of globally installed capacity.
More than 100 countries use solar PV. Installations may be ground-mounted
(and sometimes integrated with farming and grazing) or built into the roof or
walls of a building (either building-integrated photovoltaics or simply
rooftop).

Driven by advances in technology and increases in manufacturing scale and

sophistication, the cost of photovoltaics has declined steadily since the first
solar cells were manufactured, and the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE)

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from PV is competitive with conventional electricity sources in an expanding

list of geographic regions. Net metering and financial incentives, such as
preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity, have supported
solar PV installations in many countries.With current technology,
photovoltaics recoup the energy needed to manufacture them in 3 to 4 years.
Anticipated technology would reduce time needed to recoup the energy to 1
to 2 year.

PRINCIPLE OF PV CELL: Solar cell works on the principle of

photovoltaic effect. Sunlight is composed of photons, or "packets “of energy.
These photons contain various amounts of energy corresponding to the
different wavelengths of light. When photons strike a solar cell, they may be
reflected or absorbed. When a photon is absorbed, the energy of the photon
is transferred to an electron in an atom of the cell (which is actually a
semiconductor). With its new found energy, the electron is able to escape
from itsnormal position associated with that atom to become part of the
current in an electric.

2.3 BATTERY CHARGERS

A battery charger is a device used to put energy into a secondary cell or

(rechargeable) battery by forcing an electric current through it. The charge
current depends upon the technology and capacity of the battery being
charged. For example, the current that should be applied to recharge a 12 V
car battery will be very different from the current for a mobile phone battery.

2.3.1 TYPES OF BATTERY CHARGERS

Battery chargers are of various types and shapes, depending on the aim or
target of manufacturers. They vary in physical shape and size, circuit
components, charging techniques, component ratings, input requirements and
their output. Generally, chargers are classified into the following categories:

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Simple Chargers

A simple charger works by connecting a constant DC power source to the

battery being charged. The simple charger does not alter its output based on
time or the charge on the battery. This simplicity means that a simple charger
is inexpensive, but there is a trade-off in quality. Typically, a simple charger
takes longer to charge a battery to prevent severe over-charging. Even so, a
battery left in a simple charger for too long will be weakened or destroyed due
to over-charging. These chargers can supply either a constant voltage or a
constant current to the battery.

Trickle Chargers

A trickle charger is a kind of simple charger that charges the battery slowly, at
the self-discharge rate. A trickle charger is the slowest kind of battery charger.
A battery can be left in a trickle charger indefinitely. Leaving a battery in a
trickle charger keeps the battery "topped up" but never over-charges.

Timer-based Chargers

The output of a timer charger is terminated after a pre-determined time. Timer

chargers were the most common type for high-capacity Ni-Cd cells in the late
1990s for example (low-capacity consumer Ni-Cd cells were typically charged
with a simple charger).

Often a timer charger and set of batteries could be bought as a bundle and the
charger time was set to suit those batteries. If batteries of lower capacity were
charged then they would be overcharged, and if batteries of higher capacity
were charged they would be only partly charged. With the trend for battery
technology to increase capacity year on year, an old timer charger would only
partly charge the newer batteries.

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Timer based chargers also had the drawback that charging batteries that were
not fully discharged, even if those batteries were of the correct capacity for the
particular timed charger, would result in over-charging.

Intelligent Chargers

Output current depends upon the battery's state. An intelligent charger may
monitor the battery's voltage, temperature and/or time under charge to
determine the optimum charge current at that instant. Charging is terminated
when a combination of the voltage, temperature and/or time indicates that the
battery is fully charged.

For Ni-Cd and NiMH batteries, the voltage across the battery increases slowly
during the charging process, until the battery is fully charged. After that, the
voltage decreases, which indicates to an intelligent charger that the battery is
fully charged. Such chargers are often labelled as a ΔV, or "delta-V," charger,
indicating that they monitor the voltage change.

The problem is, the magnitude of "delta-V" can become very small or even non-
existent if (very) high capacity rechargeable batteries are recharged. This can
cause even an intelligent battery charger to not sense that the batteries are
actually already fully charged, and continue charging. Overcharging of the
batteries will result in some cases. However, many so called intelligent chargers
employ a combination of cut off systems, which should prevent overcharging in
the vast majority of cases.

A typical intelligent charger fast-charges a battery up to about 85% of its

maximum capacity in less than an hour, then switches to trickle charging,
which takes several hours to top off the battery to its full capacity.

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Fast Chargers

Fast chargers make use of control circuitry in the batteries being charged to
rapidly charge the batteries without damaging the cells' elements. Most such
chargers have a cooling fan to help keep the temperature of the cells under
control. Most are also capable of acting as a standard overnight charger if used
with standard NiMH cells that do not have the special control circuitry. Some
fast chargers, such as those made by Energizer, can fast-charge any NiMH
battery even if it does not have the control circuit.

Pulse Chargers

Some chargers use pulse technology in which a pulse is fed to the battery. This
DC pulse has a strictly controlled rise time, pulse width, pulse repetition rate
(frequency) and amplitude. This technology is said to work with any size,
voltage, capacity or chemistry of batteries, including automotive and valve-
regulated batteries. With pulse charging, high instantaneous voltages can be
applied without overheating the battery. In a Lead-acid battery, this breaks-
down stubborn lead-sulphate crystals, thus greatly extending the battery
service life.

Some chargers use pulses to check the current battery state when the charger
is first connected, then use constant current charging during fast charging,
then use pulse charging as a kind of trickle charging to maintain the charge.

Some chargers use "negative pulse charging", also called "reflex charging" or
"burp charging". Such chargers use both positive and brief negative current
pulses. Such chargers don't work any better than pulse chargers that only use
positive pulses.

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Inductive Chargers

Inductive battery chargers use electromagnetic induction to charge batteries. A

charging station sends electromagnetic energy through inductive coupling to
an electrical device, which stores the energy in the batteries. This is achieved
without the need for metal contacts between the charger and the battery. It is
commonly used in electric toothbrushes and other devices used in bathrooms.
Because there are no open electrical contacts, there is no risk of electrocution.

USB-based

Since the Universal Serial Bus specification provides for a five-volt power
supply, it's possible to use a USB cable as a power source for recharging
batteries. Products based on this approach include chargers for cellular phones
and portable digital audio players.

Solar chargers

Solar chargers employs solar energy in charging devices and are generally
portable.

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2.4 FRAME WORK OF PROJECT

Proposed Work
Fig 1.shows block diagram & overview of the project. There are three main
input sources like AC input, input from solar panel and last one is storage
battery. Here we are using PIC microcontroller 16F877A. There is a LCD
display which shows all information related to battery. A buck converter was
chosen because of its simplicity, efficiency and low heat Dissipation .The PIC
microcontroller controls the buck converter through the use of hardware PWM
Module and an external current sense resistor. The hardware PWM and
current sense resistor feedback are significant in providing an accurate and
repeatable charge methodology

Fig 2.2: Block diagram

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Source selection

Fig 2.3: Source selection

Source selection is the main part of this project. There are three main
input sources like input from solar panel, input from AC and last one is
input from storage battery. In above figure diode D5 and diode D8 are
act as protection diode. Diode D1, D2, D3 and D4 are act as bridge
rectifier and used for the rectification of AC input voltage.
Battery status LED’s and Keypad
Here we are using some indications in our circuit. Green LED on for fully
charge battery when battery reaches the voltage approx. 4.5 volt. Red LED on
for discharge battery.LCD display for all status of information. The battery
status can be displayed using status LED’s. If any set point needs to be
changed keypad can be used.

Buck converter
The most critical parameter in charging batteries is the control of the power
source. Whether Current or voltage charging is being used (we use constant
current method), control of the Power source is imperative to proper battery
charging. The power source for our system is a Buck converter. A buck
converter is chosen because of its simplicity, efficiency and low heat
Dissipation .The PIC microcontroller controls the buck converter through the
use of hardware PWM Module and an external current sense

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Chapter 03

DESIGN AND CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

3.1 Block diagram:

Fig 3.1 block diagram for solar mobile charger

Solar panel
A solar panel is a set of solar photovoltaic modules electrically connected and
mounted on a supporting structure. A photovoltaic module is a packaged,
connected assembly of solar cells.

The solar panel can be used as a component of a larger photovoltaic system to

generate and supply electricity in commercial and residential applications.

A photovoltaic system typically includes a panel or an array of solar modules,

an inverter, and sometimes a battery and/or solar tracker and interconnection
wiring.

Fig 3.2 solar cell

Raw Materials: The basic component of a solar cell is pure silicon, which is not
pure in its natural state Purifying the silicon.Making single crystal
silicon,Making silicon wafers i.e. making small small silicon crystal.

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Doping :Doping is used to increase the strength of the material,The anti-

reflective coating :It is a type of opticlal coating applied to the surface of lenses.
It improves efficiency,Encapsulating the cell.

Regulator:

Fig 3.3 Regulator

A 5V voltage regulator (7805) is used to ensure that no more than 5V is

delivered to the Digi lab board

If a DC supply of greater than 12V is used, excessive heat will be generated,

and the board may be damaged. If a DC supply of less than 5V is used,
insufficient voltage will be present at the regulators output.

If a power supply provides a voltage higher than 7 or 8 volts, the regulator

must dissipate significant heat.

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3.2 Circuit Diagram:

Fig 3.4 solar mobile charger circuit diagram

The working of the circuit is simple. The output of the solar panel is fed via
diode 1N5402 (D1), which acts as a polarity guard and protects the solar
panel.An ammeter connected in series between diode D1and fuse to measure
the current flowing during charging of the batteries. As in fig., we have used
analogue multi meter in 500Ma range.Diode D2 is used for protection against
reverse polarity in case of wrong connection of the lead-acid battery. When you
connect wrong polarity, the fuse will blow up.

Working of Solar mobile charger

When the battery charger kit is exposed to sunlight, the photons are
incident on the solar panel. These photons are absorbed by the solar panel.
This absorbed light energy is converted into electrical energy by the solar
panel, which is nothing but the photoelectric effect. We give the solar negative
terminal as one of the final output terminal. The solar positive is given to the

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regulator input.

Using theLM317 regulator the input is regulated. Now why to regulate this
input? The sunlight which is incident on the panel is not always the same i.e.
the intensity of the sun is always fluctuating. That’s why it becomes essential
to regulate the input voltage. The regulator is made to act like a variable
resistor continuously adjusting a voltage to maintain a constant output
voltage.

The voltage coming from the regulator is to be limited otherwise the batteries
may be overcharged and may be damaged. We are using here a resistance of
15Ω.The signal from the regulator output is given to this 15Ω resistor and
then it is given to final output.

Now from the sunlight by taking the light energy and we can say processing
it, we get electrical energy which now can be stored in rechargeable batteries
that we have. When the batteries get discharged we can recharge them by
exposing the kit to sunlight.

Fig 3.5 Charging A Mobile

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3.3 OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION WITH AUTO CUT-OFF

Fig 3.6 Overvoltage protection with auto cut-off block diagram

Over voltage protection circuit includes charge discharge control unit,

battery, and PIC microcontroller for the battery status sense. The PIC
performs battery voltage readings during the rest period of the charge
cycle, this status information reading is used to protect the battery from
overcharging. By using over voltage protection circuit we can protect our
battery from over charge. Charge discharge control circuit contains two-
way Switch. It gets active when voltage exceeds above threshold voltage
level. By using this unit we can apply proper battery voltage to our cell
phone battery.

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CONCLUSION
Renewable energy is not a new concept, nevertheless at an exponential
growing population, the development and improvement of them are essential
to sustain world power hunger. In 2050 the population expectation on earth is
about 9 billion people, where approximately 5 billion will use mobile phones.
The application of renewable energy at portable devices starts to plays a
significant role at global energy saving. Solar chargers are simple, portable
and ready to use devices which can be used by anyone especially in remote
areas.

FUTURE SCOPE
Basically the solar mobile charger is designed for charging mobile battery. But
in future, by making some modifications we can use this charger to charge
batteries used in different portable devices like laptop, walky-talky, i-POD,
digital camera etc.

LIMITATIONS
Quite expensive: One of the most important drawbacks is its price compared to
the ordinary mobile phone chargers, it is quite expensive as it utilizes solar
energy captivators.

Charging time large: Another significant drawback is the time frame required by
the chargers to charge mobile phones. It can take six to eight hours to charge
mobile phones compared to the other.

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REFERENCES
 G. Park”Overview of Energy Harvesting Systems (for Low-Power
Electronics).” Presentation at the First Los Alamos National Laboratory
Engineering Institute Workshop: Energy Harvesting, 2005 .
 Ferro Solutions. “VEH-360: Evaluation Power System Specifications.”
 J .A. Paradiso and T. Starner. 2005. “Energy scavenging for mobile and
wireless electronics.” Pervasive Computing 4(1):18–27.
 EnOcean.PerpetuumInternational Edition4http://tinyurl.com/2lxbo5
(orwww.enocean.com/fileadmin/redaktion/pdf/perpetuum/perpetuum_
06_en.pdf), 2007.
 C. Park and P. Chou , “Power utility maximization for multiple-supply
systems by a load-matching switch”, Proc. ACM/IEEE International
Symposium on Losw Power Electronics and Design, pp. 168–173, 2004.
 T. Voigt, H. Ritter,and J. Schiller, “Utilizing solar power in wireless sensor
networks”, Proc. IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks, 2003.
 A. Kansal, D. Potter, and M. Srivastava “Performance aware tasking for
enrironmentally powered sensor networks”, Proc. ACM International
Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems, pp.223–
234, 2004.

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