Who invented the MPPT?

Peter Watkinson's father, Stuart Watkinson, invented the first maximum power point tracker for charging a battery from PV in 1985. Now Peter runs the business and continues innovating and making MPPT's relevant again for larger systems with up to 600V PV arrays.

#sponsored

00:00 - Intro
00:14 - History
01:16 - SRX Specifications
04:32 - New 600V Max Units
12:01 - The Original AERL
18:41 - Why DC Coupling
24:11 - Isc PV x 1.25

[Tugedhel]

I love the black start feature... This is awesome.

[niranjankumarjha]

Great story and conversation. Love your work Glenn, keep it up!

[johndefigueiredo]

Wow, this is a truly great explanation of MPPT vs AC Coupling etc. The video blows my mind. To really get my head round it I'll have watch it several times. The SRX 600 series of MPPT controllers are fantastic. Thanks heaps, Glen and Peter

[alexjohnward]

Is the fuse easy to change? Does it come with a spare? Looks like a nice unit!

[solarshows]

Another thing with AC coupled with Frequency dependent active power reduction in off grid is that if a huge load is turned off while the PV array is also generating a large amount of power it can't react in time and the AC coupled PV inverter can shut down from Over voltage. Had to re-configure ride through on a Fronius Primo 8.2 to stop it. Typically happened in Summer with full batteries. AC coupled with a 10KW Quattro. Hasn't blown up after 5 years so whatever. The clock on his SMEG oven is out too.

[solarshows]

Apart from the 600V limit (beats Victron), what looks best is that it doesn't have an upside down top hat cover over protruding terminals or plugs with tiny non magnetic SSteel screws that love to fall in the grass below while trying to balance them on the tip of a PH2 driver bit (water enters where the missing screws are and it fills up like a cup). With this it's straight in with conduit from bottom. It could almost use a 2nd add on box with another set of rear and bottom entry punch outs mounted below the main unit with a drain. Otherwise the rear entry punch outs can't be used. I used to always go down the cavity on a brick veneer house. A DC isolator would be good in an add on box too. That would clean things right up on the surface and save time and money as well.

[Tugedhel]

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS... I'm so sick of review after review of cheep Chinese crap that is just ripped of technology made cheep.

[CollinBaillie]

What sort of inverter would you couple with these SCCs?