ABSTRACT
Electronic regulation is in practice a necessity in most solar photovoltaic (pv) systems with batteries. The management of the energy balance within the system is performed through the regulation process. Regulation is the process which enables the system to provide the optimal management of the energy flow within the system. Different types of regulator can perform the regulation with different degrees of technical sophistication. A self-regulating system may be the least effective way of extracting energy from the pv array since the battery voltage requirement places specific constraints on the array operating voltage and current, forcing it to operate most of the time away from its maximum-power point. The series regulator utilizes a transistor in series with the pv generator. The transistor behaves like a variable resistance whose value is a function of the state of charge of the battery.
