See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/329312589

Design and Implementation of Solar Powered Mobile Phone Charging Station

for Public Places

Conference Paper · March 2018

DOI: 10.1109/ICCTCT.2018.8551180

CITATIONS READS

11 32,478

2 authors:

Udayalakshmi J K Sheik Mohammed Sulthan

Amal Jyothi College of Engineering Institut Teknologi Brunei
1 PUBLICATION 11 CITATIONS 83 PUBLICATIONS 1,009 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Sheik Mohammed Sulthan on 11 January 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

Design and Implementation of Solar Powered

Mobile Phone Charging Station for Public
Places
Udayalakshmi J K Sheik Mohammed S
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department
AmalJyothi College of Engineering, AmalJyothi College of Engineering,
Kottayam District., Kerala, India Kottayam District., Kerala, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—A solar powered mobile phone charging been occurred in mobile phone technology. Smart phones
station is proposed in this paper. The proposed system have left from closed platforms containing only pre-
can be installed in any public places like market, bus installed applications to open platforms hosting a variety
stops and other shopping places or the places where of third-party applications especially social media
people gather to charge their mobile phones. The networks and entertainment. The smart phones have
system is designed in such a way that any mobile configured with more powerful hardware and more
phone can be charged. The hardware of the proposed complex software, which leads to the consumption of
mobile phone charging station is implemented and more energy when compared to feature phones (low-end
tested. cell phones with limited functionality). Unfortunately, this
development has led the smart phones to a rapid increase
Keywords—Solar Energy, Photovoltaic, Abnormal in Abnormal Battery Drain(ABD)problems [4]. The
Battery Drain, Mobile Charger, Voltage Regulation portable mobile phone chargers which generate electricity
using photovoltaic cells are introduced as an alternative to
I.INTRODUCTION the battery banks. It consists of a battery to store the
energy generated by the PV cell. Since, the amount of
Solar energy has been used since time immemorial to dry electricity generated by the PV cells is less; these
agricultural products, to create ventilation in homes etc. conventional PV chargers cannot fulfill the requirements
Two thousand years ago, Heron of Alexandria invented a of the user [5]-[8]. Moreover, these types of changes can
simple water pump driven by solar energy and in 214 B.C be used for personal use only. The most common
Archimedes of Syracuse used concentrating solar mirrors difficulty faced by the user is the quick draining of the
to set fire in Roman ships [1]. Two methods exist by mobile phone battery. A fully-charged battery can get
which sunlight can be converted into directly usable drained within couple of hours, due to data packet service
energy are conversion of sunlight based on rankine cycle and back end processes which are always active in the
and conversion of electricity based on photovoltaic (PV) phones. The user approaches the nearby shops to charge
effect. Former is the conversion of solar energy into heat the mobile phones under emergency situation. Though the
by absorbing sunlight into a blackened surface. If air or power banks are widely available in the market for
water is passed alongside or through this warmed surface, emergency charging, it is not affordable for everyone.
that will get heated up. In this way the thermal energy can
be transported to wherever it is needed. In photovoltaic Design, development and implementation of a solar
conversion, the light falling on the solar cells are directly powered mobile charging system for public places is
converted in to DC electricity. Today, noticeable amount proposed and discussed in this paper. The rest of the paper
of photovoltaic and solar-thermal installations are in is divided as follows. In section II, the fundamentals of
service around the world. In space applications every solar photovoltaic and the factors affecting the solar PV
satellite is equipped with solar photovoltaic as a primary output are described. The design and development of the
power source. The Solar Power Satellite (SPS) has been solar powered mobile charging system is explained in
hailed by proponents as an answer to future global energy detail in section III. In section IV, simulation and
security.Solar photovoltaic technologies have been hardware implementation of the proposed system is
deployed for various off- grid and on- grid applications discussed in detail. Section V concludes the paper.
such as solar street lightning, solar water pumping, rural
electrification, commercial power projects, solar building II.THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
technologies, etc[2]-[3].
A. Solar Photovoltaic
In the past few years many evolutionary changes have The most rich fuel source in the area of renewable energy

978-1-5386-3702-9/18/$31.00 © 2017 IEEE 1

 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

is the solar energy. To convert the sun’s energy, the PV III.FRAME WORK OF THE SYSTEM
cells capture photons; create free electrons that flow
across the cells to produce current [6]. The efficiency of C. Proposed System
the panel is determined by the semiconductor material Fig. 3 shows the block diagram of the solar powered
that the cells are made from. A single silicon photovoltaic mobile phone charging unit. The system comprises of a
cell can generate 0.5V to 0.6V approximately. The current PV module, charge controller, battery and two voltage
generated by the silicon photovoltaic cell is between 28 regulation circuits. The energy generated by the PV
mA/cm2and 35 mA/cm2. So, the photovoltaic cells are module is stored in a battery which is connected to the PV
connected in series-parallel combination to achieve the Module through a charge controller. The charge controller
desired power [9]. Since, electricity can be generated only acts as maximum power extractor and as voltage regulator
during a day using Solar PV technology; either an for the battery. A vertical pole is used to mount the PV
efficient energy storage system (or) grid connection is panel and a box is designed with proper ventilation to
required for the night time utilization. keep the battery and the regulator circuit safely. Fig. 4
shows the structural design of the proposed system. This
B. Weather and Solar PV Output vertical structure can be installed in public places for
Solar PV has a non-linear characteristics and the public use. A universal charging port is connected to the
efficiency and power output depends upon various regulation circuit to plug any mobile phone to be charged.
factors. The two main parameters which have noticeable
effect on the solar PV output are temperature and
irradiation (G). The other factors contribute to the
variation of the output power of solar panels includes
cloud cover and the angle of the sun. The PV panel output
current is directly proportional to the light intensity and
the change in temperature has inverse effect on the panel
voltage. The angle at which the panels are placed on their
mounts also determines the energy collected by the panels
[6]. Fig. 1 shows the effect of temperature in the output
power of PV module and the power output corresponding
Fig.3. Block diagram of Solar Powered Mobile Phone
to different light intensity are depicted in Fig.2.
Charging System

The vertical pole is having a total length of 3.5 meters

above the ground and 0.3meters below the ground. The
structure is made compactable since they have to be
installed in public places.

Fig.1. Variation in output power for different cell

temperature (Tc) [10]

Fig.2. Variation in output power for different light

intensity (G) [10] Fig.4. Structure of the proposed system

2
 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

D. Voltage Regulator Circuit TABLE I: DETAILS OF THE COMPONENTS USED IN

Two regulator circuits are used in the system. One circuit THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
provides 4V output and the other voltage regulator circuit Description Specification
gives 5V as output. The voltage regulation circuits are PV module 50W peak
developed using IC LM 317. Fig. 5 depicts the voltage Charge Controller 12V, 20A
regulator circuit using IC LM 317. Battery 12V, 20Ah
Voltage Regulator Circuit 4V,5V
Vertical Pole 3.8m
Universal Charging Cord 5V

IV.HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS

E. Regulator Circuit Simulation

The designed regulator circuits are simulated in Proteus
and outputs are validated. The Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show the
simulation circuits of 5V and 4V regulator circuits
respectively. The circuits are simulated with 12V input
Fig.5. Voltage Regulator Circuit for LM 317
and the desired outputs are obtained.
LM 317 IC has three pins named Vin, Vout and Adjust. Vin
is the input pin and Vout is the output pin where the output
of the circuit is obtained. R1 and R2 are the voltage divider
resistance which determines the output for the regulator
circuit.

The resistance value for R1 can be assumed to be any

value according to the availability. The value of the
resistance R2 can be theoretically calculated using the
equation

 V   (1)
R2  R1 *  out   1
 1.25  
Selection of R1 and R2 for 4V regulator circuit: Fig.6. Regulator Circuit for 5V output
R1 = 180Ω
 4   (2)
R2  180 *    1
 1.25  

Therefore, R2 = 396Ω

Selection of R1 and R2 for 5V regulator circuit:

R1 = 180Ω
 5   (3)
R2  180 *    1
 1.25  

Therefore, R2 = 540Ω
Fig.7. Regulator Circuit for 4V output
1K potentiometer is used for R2 in both regulator circuits.
F. Characteristics of PV module
The specifications of the components of the proposed
Electrical specifications of the selected PV module for the
system are presented in Table I.
study and implementation of the system are presented in
Table II.

3
 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

TABLE II: SELECTED PV MODULE

SPECIFICATIONS
Description Specification
Maximum power (Pmax) 50W
Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) 21.60V
Short Circuit Current (Isc) 3.23A
Maximum Voltage (Vmax) 17.20V
Maximum Current (Imax) 2.91A

A 50W, 12V PV panel is used for the characteristic study.

The equivalent circuit to perform the characteristic study
is shown in Fig. 8. The study is performed under variable Fig.11. Hardware to perform the Characteristic study
ambient conditions and the results are obtained.
G. Solar Powered Mobile Charging Circuit
Fig.12 shows the regulator circuit and the mobile phone
initially tested with DC source.

Fig.8. Equivalent circuit for the characteristic study

The P-V and I-V characteristics of the selected PV panel

under different values of irradiation (G) in W/m2 and
temperature (Tc) in oC are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 Fig.12. Initial testing of regulator circuit using constant
respectively. DC supply

Complete experimental setup of the mobile phone

charging system including a PV module, a battery, a
charge controller and regulator circuits is shown in Fig.
13.

Fig.9. P-V Characteristics of PV Module

Fig.10. I-V Characteristics of PV Module

Fig. 11 shows the experimental setup done to study the Fig.13. Experimental setup of the proposed system
characteristics of the selected PV module at various The solar powered mobile charging station is known to be
ambient conditions. versatile as it can be used for all types of mobile phones.
One of the greatest advantages of solar powered mobile
phone charging station is that it can be used to charge

4
 Proceeding of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Current Trends toward Converging Technologies, Coimbatore, India

mobiles even at night.This mobile phone charging system transmission,”Proceeding of International Conference on
can be easily integrated to the existing solar street lighting Energy and Environment, 2009.
system. [4]. C. Li, W. 1ia, Q. Tao, and M. Sun, "Solar cell phone
charger performance in indoor environment," IEEE
Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC),
V.CONCLUSION 2011.
[5]. C. Schuss, and T. Rahkonen, "Use of mobile phones as
In this paper, the design, development and microcontrollers for control applications such as
implementation of a solar powered mobile phone charging maximum power point tracking," Proceedings of the
unit for public places is presented and discussed. The IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference
solar powered mobile charging system with battery and (MELECON), 2012.
charging adapter for different phones can be mounted in [6]. C. Schuss, and T. Rahkonen, "Photovoltaic (PV) energy
any places like bus stops, parks, junctions etc for public as recharge source for portable devices such as mobile
use. Thus the user can charge the mobile phone by phones," Proceedings of thenih Conference of FRUCT
Association, 2012.
directly plugging it in the system. The hardware of the [7]. Christian Schuss, Bernd Eichbergert, and Timo
proposed system is implemented and tested. Rahkonen, ” Design specifications and guidelines for
efficient solar chargers of mobile phones ,” IEEE
REFERENCES Transaction, 2014.
[8]. Christian Schuss, and Timo Rahkonen,” Solar energy
[1]. Ken Butti, and John Perlin, “A Golden Thread: 2500 harvesting strategies for portable devices such as mobile
years of solar architecture and technology,” Cheshire phones,”14th Conference of FRUCT Association, 2014.
books, 1980. [9]. T. Penick, and B. Louk, “Photovoltaic power
[2]. S. Sheik Mohammed, K. Ramasamy, and T. generation,” TEI Controls, 2007.
Shanmuganantham, “Wireless power transmission – A [10]. S. Sheik Mohammed, and D. Devaraj,” Simulation and
next generation power transmission system,” analysis of stand-alone photovoltaic system with boost
International Journal of Computer Applications, Vol. 1, converter using MATLAB/Simulink, “ IEEE
No.13, 2010. Conference, 2014.
[3]. S. S. Mohammed, and K. Ramasamy,”Solar power
generation using SPS and wireless power

View publication stats