TI Releases MCU Solar Kits to Jumpstart Development for Renewable Energy Applications
Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) announced two new solar kits based on its C2000™ 32-bit Piccolo™ and Concerto™ microcontrollers (MCUs). These new solar kits bring advanced peripherals, application-targeted development hardware, schematics, comprehensive software libraries of algorithms and what the company says is an industry-leading development environment to the renewable energy market, allowing designers to easily create solar inverter designs while evaluating various solar algorithms and topologies.
The C2000 high-voltage Solar Developer’s Kit features and benefits include:
– The C2000 Solar Developer’s Kit is TI’s first complete, high-voltage, string-ready, isolated MCU-controlled solar solution to help power designers create high-voltage solar applications.
– Comprised of two separate development boards, the Solar Developer’s Kit provides a dual-controller design allowing developers to work with high-voltage power stages and inter-processor communications systems.
– The primary board features a 300Vdc compatible input stage supporting up to 500W with an interleaved boost stage for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and a resonant LLC stage for isolation, with both stages controlled by a single Piccolo MCU. The secondary board features a full bridge dc-ac inverter supporting 120/220Vac output with grid-matching, and can be controlled by a Concerto or Piccolo MCU, offering both control and connectivity in one processor.
The C2000 low-voltage Solar Explorer Kit features and benefits include:
– Supporting both Piccolo and Concerto C2000 MCUs, the Solar Explorer Kit provides a complete, non-isolated design and features multiple power stages controlled with a single low-cost digital controller – all perfect for designing solar and renewable energy applications.
– The Solar Explorer Kit includes multiple dc-dc conversions, as well as a dc-ac stage that supports 12Vdc/100W input stage for a safe, low-cost architecture that can be used in desktop or low-voltage bench top experimentation lab situations for learning digitally controlled power stages or use in non-grid-tied applications. These stages are all controlled by a single Piccolo MCU.
– Featuring a single-switch dc-dc boost for MPPT, dc-dc SEPIC for battery charging and a full bridge dc-ac inverter capable of driving 24Vac, the Solar Explorer Kit enables flexibility for low-voltage solar designs. Also included on this kit is a secondary processor controlling a solar panel emulator circuit, featuring a photo-diode for light sensing.
– Providing optional support for the C2000 Concerto MCU adds connectivity functions to the digital controller through an included Ethernet-connected graphical user interface (GUI).
The new solar development kits are available for order now. The high-voltage Solar Developer’s Kit (TMDSHVMPPTKIT) is available for $550 USD, and the accompanying Concerto or Piccolo inverter board (TMDSHV1PHINVKIT) is available for $450 USD. The low-voltage Solar Explorer Kit is available for order now. It comes in two versions – a Piccolo MCU-based version (TMDSSOLARPEXPKIT) for $425 USD and a Concerto MCU-based version (TMDSSOLARCEXPKIT) for $575 USD.
More news and information regarding the latest developments in Smart Grid electronics can be found at Darnell’s SmartGridElectronics.Net.
