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Solar system on a sailboat for 96v battery?

 

I have the sailboat kit from Thunderstruck-EV, configured for 96v upon their advice for my power needs. Had I known the grief it would cause trying to find the electronics for 96v, I would never have gone with this. Unfortunately, I've already installed he ME1616 and had a custom gearbox machined for it. It would cost thousands to reconfigure the system for two 48v motors at this point.
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I'm trying to set up the solar system rn, and wondering if anyone else has done this. I bought four Hyundai panels, bifacial, 48VOC. I thought I was going to just hook them up in series, but it's been pointed out to me that partial shading of the solar array would shut the whole thing down. So, as a starting point, I made a design:
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Having a heck of a time finding a DC-DC converter with a ~100v output. Saw one on Amazon, (DROK DC Boost Converter 900W) with a prominent warning label about frequent returns.?
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Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. If anyone has done this, would greatly appreciate your advice.
 

One booster and one controller per panel is the way to go. That will minimize any shading issues.


On Sat, 10 May 2025, 09:10 Circe Strauss via , <neriad6=[email protected]> wrote:
I have the sailboat kit from Thunderstruck-EV, configured for 96v upon their advice for my power needs. Had I known the grief it would cause trying to find the electronics for 96v, I would never have gone with this. Unfortunately, I've already installed he ME1616 and had a custom gearbox machined for it. It would cost thousands to reconfigure the system for two 48v motors at this point.
?
I'm trying to set up the solar system rn, and wondering if anyone else has done this. I bought four Hyundai panels, bifacial, 48VOC. I thought I was going to just hook them up in series, but it's been pointed out to me that partial shading of the solar array would shut the whole thing down. So, as a starting point, I made a design:
?
Having a heck of a time finding a DC-DC converter with a ~100v output. Saw one on Amazon, (DROK DC Boost Converter 900W) with a prominent warning label about frequent returns.?
?
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. If anyone has done this, would greatly appreciate your advice.
 

You may want to go with a transformer.
Or just 1 boost converter and a diode for each Solar panel.
With the boost controllers I think you will loose the Mppt functionality of the charge controller, but I don't think that matters very much.
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Genasun make a MPPT boost controller for 48V LiFePo4 see Genasun GVB-8-Li-56.8V-WP, I've got 8 of them on my boat. One per panel.

--
Regards,

Paul J. Thompson
IT Manager - Bathroom Direct
(W)09 913 3110 (Mob)021 275 5001 (txt only please)


On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 3:16?PM gsxbearman via <gsxbearman=[email protected]> wrote:
You may want to go with a transformer.
Or just 1 boost converter and a diode for each Solar panel.
With the boost controllers I think you will loose the Mppt functionality of the charge controller, but I don't think that matters very much.
?
?
 

Maybe a simpler solution is to arrange the 4 panels into two strings of two panels in series. Each string should have its own charge controller. That avoids the DC-DC converter, and gives some tolerance for partial shading.
 
Edited

What about this? Split the battery pack in two and charge each half at 48V with it's own controller (would still need to string 2 panels together to get enough voltage).
Kinda like center tapping a transformer but center tapping the battery with the negative side of one charger and the positive side of another charger.
If you program both chargers the same, feed them with equal length wires from bus bars that are fed from all panels, and have a 16s balancer, I think it could work.
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Those Genasun GVB-8-Li-56.8V-WP are almost exactly what I need for my boat, but they are only rated at 8A (while saying that people have been using them up to 9A without issue). My panels Max Power Current is 10.72A while the Short-Circuit Current is 11.26A.
My panels are only 370W with a VOC of 41.4V (Vmp of 34.5V) and I have been trying to figure out a way to mount 3 of these panels when I only have room for 2.
So at 405W I don't think the OP could use these (let alone the fact that the highest voltage I see for these is 62V).
 

Generally, you need higher voltage going into a charge controller than the battery voltage you are trying to charge (unless you have a boost controller like Paul above). The OP has 48VOC panels, so a max voltage of 2 in series of 96, but when charging will probably fall to around 84V.
A "96V" battery will have a working voltage calculated at 102.4V with a 116.8V needed to top of the charge, so 2 panels will not work for the OP.
 

Hello there,

I have my system battery bank in 96VDC too, and it is indeed more complex to find components than when you stay below 48VDC. That being said, you can source the components directly from China, with a lot more to choose from. In my situation, I have 8 strings of 5 panels in series, attached to 4 industrial MPPT controllers from IPandee. Each string is at around 200VDC. I have no shading problem on my boat, other than droppings from birds, so going with panels in series to up the voltage was an easy choice.

In your case, as you are on a sailboat and you will have some shading, you are correct that you should avoid putting your panels in series. I would avoid adding a DC-DC converter to boost the panel voltage before the MPPT though. A DC-DC has a ~95% efficiency, so it is a shame to lose power there. We never have enough power... ;-)

Based on what you described, I would go with a product such as this one , one per panel, and keep a few as spares. See Alibaba or Aliexpress for other products, I just Googled and found that one, but I am sure there are other brands doing boost and MPPT charging for 96VDC banks.

As an additional safety precaution, I would suggest you add a way to cut power from the panels to the MPPT charger when the BMS signals that the charge should stop. Cheap electronic components like the one I linked do not have compatibility to communicate on the BMS data bus to start and stop the charge, and only stop the charge when the battery bank reaches a set voltage. The key concern here is if there is a bug in the MPPT software that would not stop the charge, this could lead to a very serious security hazard, so the best way to avoid that is to cut the feed from the panel to the MPPT when the BMS says "stop the charge".?

I hope this helps.

Jerome


On Fri, May 9, 2025 at 11:10?PM Circe Strauss via <neriad6=[email protected]> wrote:
I have the sailboat kit from Thunderstruck-EV, configured for 96v upon their advice for my power needs. Had I known the grief it would cause trying to find the electronics for 96v, I would never have gone with this. Unfortunately, I've already installed he ME1616 and had a custom gearbox machined for it. It would cost thousands to reconfigure the system for two 48v motors at this point.
?
I'm trying to set up the solar system rn, and wondering if anyone else has done this. I bought four Hyundai panels, bifacial, 48VOC. I thought I was going to just hook them up in series, but it's been pointed out to me that partial shading of the solar array would shut the whole thing down. So, as a starting point, I made a design:
?
Having a heck of a time finding a DC-DC converter with a ~100v output. Saw one on Amazon, (DROK DC Boost Converter 900W) with a prominent warning label about frequent returns.?
?
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. If anyone has done this, would greatly appreciate your advice.
 

Big Thanks to Jerome, that is exactly the thing the OP needs.
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And after being educated by Jerome, I was able to find almost the same thing on the big A webstore (just 72V instead of 96V).
I didn't need the 96V but I did need the 12A.
I only need 48V for the boat, and 72V for my Ebike, so I got some of these;

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