PWM or MPPT?

PWM and MPPT charge controllers are both widely used to charge batteries with solar power. The PWM controller is in essence a switch that connects a solar array to the battery. The result is that the voltage of the array will be pulled down to near that of the battery. The MPPT controller is more sophisticated (and more expensive): it will adjust its input voltage to harvest the maximum power from the solar array and then transform this power to supply the varying voltage requirement of the battery plus load. Thus, it essentially decouples the array and battery voltages so that there can be, for example, a 12V battery on one side of the MPPT charge controller and panels wired in series to produce 36V on the other. It is generally accepted that MPPT will outperform PWM in a cold to temperate climate, while both controllers will show approximately the same performance in a subtropical to tropical climate. In this paper the effect of temperature is analyzed in detail, and a quantitative performance comparison of both controller topologies is given.

To view the full data sheet from Victron on PWM vs MPPT, click here.