question

houser avatar image
houser asked

Wind in the VRM via second MPPT charger?

Hello,

Planning a new system where I would ideally want the output from the wind regulator in the Victron VRM charts. I have searched and found some topics that touch on this, but without response.
I am aware that is not supported yet but checking here if there is a good workaround to achieve this that may work albeit not be supported.

So perhaps a silly workaround, but would it be possible to use a second MPPT regulator after the wind generator output to achieve this? I know there would be some loss but it should work in theory, right? Or am I missing something obvious?

The wind turbine is a 1KW VAWT and the regulator has MPPT boost for lower winds, so it should vary its output between low and and 36 volts hopefully but I would probably want a Victron smart regulator anyway both for it to appear in the VRM and also to make sure there is no overcharging of batteries from wind also. Ideally it should be with it's own color and graph in the VRM.
Any chance of a tweak to do something like this?

Many thanks!

VRM
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3 Answers
wkirby avatar image
wkirby answered ·

Feeding a Victron MPPT from out of the existing wind controller might well work as long as the Voltage going into the Victron MPPT is at least 5V above the battery Voltage.
It's important of course to ensure that the Victron's PV Input Voltage is below the maximum.

There are people around who are running hydro turbines into Victron MPPT's. Some interesting results may be observed with the way that an MPPT controller designed for solar seeks the MPP.

Each MPPT controller get's its own graph in the advanced section of VRM, but the dashboard does not differentiate between wind and solar production, all MPPTs are summed as solar production since no wind controllers are in the product range.

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sean avatar image
sean answered ·

Feeding the output of a WT into a MPPT controller designed for PV will not produce a satisfactory output, unless that controller has a mode that allows the user to manually enter a I/V curve (such as the Outbacks)

PV MPPTs work reasonable well with hydro driven generators as their speed, and therefore the output is stable enough for the PPT to function reasonably effectively.

WTs also need to to be controlled by a system that features overspeed, dumploading, braking etc etc ....

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houser answered ·

Just waking this thread up to see if anyone has managed to get small wind turbines into a Victron and VRM setup successfully and robustly lately?

There was a solution mentioned today by Matthijs Vader in the webinar today, Nov 23 2022 of integrating wind via a BMV in the VRM. Are there links to that solution by any chance?

@Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) @WKirby


It would now appear that Victron will not make their own wind regulators as some of us had hoped, so any tested recommendations on what to use for a smooth and safe integration would be very much appreciated. Many thanks!

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