Aldo Puente , Genesh Chen-Shue, Steven Bularca, Armel Nidjeu.
The Group 7 South Africa Project (G7-SAP) is a power system intended to make energy from renewable fuel to help the Pomolong Township of South Africa power their community center. The main purpose of The G7-SAP is to allow an impoverished village to be able to be entirely energy sufficient by giving them the tools to help sustain themselves through the means of a green energy solution. The ultimate goal of this project was to create an off-the-grid stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system that utilizes maximum power point tracking (MPPT) to maximize efficiency. Photovoltaic systems have many inherent losses, so it is essential for the maximum power to be extracted. The intent was to create an extremely efficient charge controller that is able to monitor the power generated by the photovoltaic array and deliver the maximum amount to the battery bank during varying atmospheric conditions.This combined with a modified sine wave inverter ensures that the community center is able to use every little bit of power generated. This senior design project was sponsored by Progress Energy.