Design and implementation of the low cost and fast solar charger with the rooftop PV array of the vehicle

•A low cost and fast solar charger with the rooftop PV array is presented.•Simplified MPPT technique helps to reduce the number of sensor.•The voltage and current controller are designed in consideration of different operating points of the PV array.•The experimental results are shown in order to verify the feasibility and validity of the system.•It has been verified through the experiments that the charge time of the proposed charger is shorter than that of the conventional CVM charger. In this paper, a comprehensive and detail design procedure for the low cost and fast solar charger with the rooftop PV array of the vehicle is presented. A simplified maximum power point tracking technique is adopted to take advantages of the simpler structure of the circuit and the shorter charge time than those of the conventional solar charger. In the small-signal modeling of the converter, linearized equivalent circuit models of the PV array and the lead–acid battery are included for the accurate charge control all over the operating range. An experimental prototype is implemented by using a buck converter with a digital signal processor as a controller and tested by using the Elgar TerraSAS solar array simulator to verify the feasibility and validity of the system and its control algorithm.