As the title suggests the bicycle is operated by solar energy. The lead acid battery is
charged with solar energy with the help of a solar cell. Solar cells convert the energy of
sunlight directly into electricity through the use of the photovoltaic effect.
The photovoltaic effect involves the creation of a voltage into electro-magnetic radiation.
The photoelectric and photovoltaic effects are related to sunlight, but are different in
that electrons are ejected from a material’s surface upon exposure to radiation of
sufficient energy in photoelectric, and generated electrons are transferred to different
bands of valence to conduction within the material, resulting in the build-up of voltage
between two electrodes in photovoltaic.
It is essential to regulate the voltage output from the solar panel before it is supplied
to the battery. A voltage regulator is a power converter with an output DC voltage greater
than the input DC voltage. This is used to regulate an input voltage to a higher regulated
voltage.
The output of the solar panel is not always stable due to fluctuations in intensity of
sunlight, angular changes with respect to the direction of sunlight, as well as other
environmental factors.
This is the voltage regulator/Boost Converter that comes into SAB. The output of the solar
panel is the input of the boost converter, which then outputs into the battery for charging.
Because the output of the solar panel will be varying constantly, we need a voltage
regulator/boost converter that will take input from a wide range of voltages and output a
specific, constant voltage value.
A voltage regulator/boost converter is a power converter that will take in a DC voltage and
output a higher value DC voltage.
Our voltage regulator/boost converter requires output of the solar panel, which can range
from 0V to 27.2V, and output for charging of the battery.
We were initially attracted to the SPV Instruments (Fig.5, Fig.6) Module because it has the
characteristics of taking in an input range of 9.6V to 13.2V and outputting 24V at a maximum
of 2–3 amps.
This SPV has an area of 2.5 square inches so it is also small in size, which makes it very
feasible to be placed anywhere on the bicycle.
We go thought the battery voltage & we need to supply 24V in order to charge it.