This paper introduces a single sensor based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) strategy for solar photovoltaic (PV) array fed battery charging by using normal harmonic search (NHS) algorithm. The NHS algorithm is an improved version of the harmony search, which is inspired to the music composition technique and its searching ability is improved by using the normal probability distribution factor. Therefore, NHS reaches the global maximum point (GMP) very quickly and found suitable for online searching. In this work, the objective of the NHS algorithm is, the maximum extraction of the power from a PV array and efficiently charging the battery through maximizing the charging current of the battery. Due to the single sensor, the cost of the MPPT is reduced, as well as the algorithm complexity and computational burden are very less, so it can be easily implemented on the low-cost microcontroller. Here, a single current sensor based battery charging by NHS algorithm is tested on MATLAB simulation and verified on a developed prototype of the PV system. The satisfactory steady-state and dynamic performances of the NHS algorithm is obtained for a single current sensor based battery charging, under variable irradiance and temperature. © 2016 IEEE.