A novel approach to a Solar cell based battery charger for an automotive application

Many a times we would have faced the problem of a discharged battery when the vehicle is parked without use for a long duration. This is because of the battery getting drained by the sleep mode currents of the energy robbing devices that do not switch off even when the vehicle key is removed. In this paper an innovative design is proposed to utilize an alternative source of energy to maintain the State-of-Charge (SoC) of the vehicle battery healthy, through trickle charge mode, when the vehicle is not used for a long duration. Once the battery reaches its maximum SoC level through trickle charging, the additional power generated by the Solar panel is used to compensate the sleep mode currents of the various electronic controllers on the vehicle. This paper is intended to propose the alternative sources of energy to keep the vehicle battery healthy when the vehicle is in the idle state for a longer duration.