MPPT Solar Charge Controllers
aerl
Dear Solar Car Enthusiasts,
Australian Energy Research Laboratories Pty Ltd (AERL) designs and manufactures highly reliable, efficient and specialised power electronic controllers for use in Solar, Micro Hydro, Micro Wind and Cathodic Protection applications.
Back in the late 1980's, AERL designed
the world’s first specialised lightweight MPPT Solar Charge Controller
specifically for use in Solar Racing Cars and quickly developed a
reputation within the International Solar Car Fraternity for supplying highly
efficient, reliable and robust Solar Racing Car MPPT controllers. By 1990, eight of the top 11 finishers in the
World’s most prestigious Solar Racing Car event, the World Solar Challenge,
raced with the AERL RACEMAX MPPT controller.
Since that time, 1000's of AERL's specialised
Solar Race Car RACEMAX MPPT Charge
Controllers have been shipped to hundreds of teams worldwide, including ver 200
of the world’s leading universities. On
average, in fact, over 75% of teams that have competed in the World Solar
Challenge and US Solar Car Races have used AERL
RACEMAX MPPT controllers.
One of the keys to AERL’s success – in both the Solar Race market and throughout the Solar Power market – lies in its custom control modules. Developed and improved over a 22-year period, our custom control modules provide an exceptionally compact and lightweight (less than 350 grams) component to our range of PV power trackers, with efficiencies of approximately 99%. Our custom control modules are used in 100% of our products, including the specialised RACEMAX product.
AERL’s current model Solar Car
MPPT, the RACEMAX 600B, is a high
efficiency, boost only, common negative peak power point tracker specially
designed for Solar Racing Cars. It employs a tracking algorithm which regulates
the PV array voltage to a fixed percentage of its open circuit voltage.
AERL’s MPP tracking strategy has been proven to be highly efficient and
robust (ie. greatly immune to local extrema) resulting in power losses of less
than 0.5% over the whole operating temperature range of a PV array.
The AERL RACEMAX 600B is
an ideal choice for solar car teams looking to get the most out of their PV
array.
Key Features and Benefits
Superior MPPT response & power advantage
Highly reliable operation up to 50°C
Passive cooling with no moving parts
Output voltage options between 48 -144V
Compatible with all solar cells and battery arrays
Compact and lightweight design, weighing only 750g