Solar Charge Controller on micro hydro system.

[FilterGuy]

I have a couple questions about the Victron smart solar 75/xx and 150/xx charge controllers.

Background:
I am thinking about using one of these on a 24 volt Nano-hydro system instead of a diversion controller. I would like to do this for a few reasons:
a) Just like solar, hydro has a max power point. Using the MPPT function to find it would be nice.
b) The diversion controllers that give you reasonable configuration for the charge profiles are very expensive.
c) I really don't trust the voltage control you get by putting a diversion load controller in parallel with the battery.

Questions:
1) The 75/xx and 150/xx charge controllers are for strings with voltage up to 75 and 150 volts respectively. Is there a higher 'max' voltage that they can handle on the input? (I assume it clips between the 75 or 150 and the max) Since these are not diversion controllers, the turbine voltage can go high if the batteries are full and the power is not used. I need to make sure the peak voltage from the turbine wont damage the charge controller.

2) Are the controllers sensitive to ripple on the input? The turbine outputs DC that is rectified from 3 phase AC. Naturally this will have some ripple and I need to know if this is a potential issue. If I have to, I could deal with this using large capacitors and maybe even a reactor to smooth the ripples, but I would prefer not to add anything I don't need.

 

[Justin Laureltec]

Reposted from messaging for the benefit of anyone else with similar questions:

Victron does not support the usage of these controllers on anything except PV arrays, and given that I'm a Victron representative I can't advise you otherwise.... that being said, to directly answer your two questions:

1: No. Unlike other manufacturers that build in a safety margin on their ratings (say, a 150v input might actually be able to handle 170v or thereabouts), Victron very very specifically means their ratings: if you put 77v input to a 75/15, it absolutely will be damaged and absolutely will be out of warranty... so please don't do that.

2: Yes... very sensitive. We have a customer whose three MPPTs shut down every time he turns on his AIMS inverter under load because the inverter, under a moderate load, will put up to 3vAC on the DC bus due to ripple. Victron tests their MPPTs in a Victron environment, and the Victron inverters / inverter-chargers will put less than .5vAC on the DC bus as a result of ripple, so we know that the MPPTs can handle that much... but anything more than that is asking for problems.

Kinda hate to say it because I love Victron, but for your use I don't believe Victron components will do what you want.