Railroad Primer

Photovoltaic Railroad Power Installations
… Morningstar’s Controllers Are Delivering Solar Success
ALL.DAT.RR.PRIMER.09/13.EN | Page 3 of 7
Morningstar – The Controller of Choice for Railroading
Since 1995, Morningstar’s controllers have been helping regulate
railroad’s off-grid PV power systems. Whether the wayside
systems are PV-only or Hybrid (PV + secondary energy source)
power installations, our controllers and accessories have been
helping the railroad industry move trains reliably, safely and on
schedule.
Morningstar’s first and second generation ProStar
™ controllers
were the first to be embraced by railroad’s wayside PV power
systems and to this day operate reliably in several thousand
system installations worldwide. Additionally, Morningstar’s
Relay Driver has become the accessory of choice for railroad’s
low-voltage alarm applications and hybrid power installations.
In 2008, we introduced our innovative
TrakStar
™ Maximum Power Point
Tracking (MPPT) algorithm technology
that maximizes the energy harvest from the PV array into the
battery under all operating conditions. This technology
innovation is used in Morningstar’s
SunSaver MPPT™ and TriStar
MPPT™ controllers and has resulted in the TriStar MPPT
controller becoming the world-leading MPPT solar controller. Morningstar’s TrakStar MPPT
algorithm provides more accurate and faster tracking, consistently operating at the PV array’s real
maximum power point. Leveraging TrakStar, Morningstar’s MPPT controllers deliver high
conversion efficiency at all power levels resulting in:
* Significantly better in conversion efficiency at lower output levels.
* Substantially better production at higher output levels.
Since their introduction in 2009, Morningstar’s TriStar MPPT controllers became the controller of
choice for railroad’s wayside PV power system installations. Per the industry’s requirement for
highly reliable, efficient power systems, the TriStar MPPT controller allows the solar array to be
configured at voltages higher than the system battery. This enables a more effective use of all the
solar energy reaching the modules, while also reducing voltage and power losses in the connections
between the arrays and the controller.