ABSTRACT

With the increasing prevalence of solar photovoltaics in the renewable energy mix, the need for device-level assessment has greatly increased. This is challenging in rural, off-grid areas with limited access to advanced testing facilities for performance evaluation and enhancement. This paper presents a cost-effective design of a solar simulator based on a 1000 W metal halide lamp coupled with a truncated ellipsoidal reflector optimized through parametric iterations. The complex geometry is reduced to a three-parameter model. An optimal design is attained using this model. The reflector is fabricated and tested using spectrometry and pyranometry. Stabilization time for the device after the start-up was measured at intervals of 10 seconds to be ~ 4 minutes. The average intensity in the focal plane is 2220–3117 W/m² for a photovoltaic cell having a square size of 2 × 2 cm². Hence, the ray-tracing model used for this study is conservative in predicting light intensity for an elliptical concentrator. Similarly, spectral analysis shows a strong similarity of 88.7% between natural sunlight and artificial light of the solar simulator thereby advocating the capability of the simulator to demonstrate the effect of temperature on the power output of photovoltaic cells. Overall, the total hardware and fabrication cost amounts to less than $500 for a single lamp.

摘要

随着太阳能光伏在可再生能源组合中的日益普及，对设备级评估的需求大大增加。这在农村、离网地区具有挑战性，因为无法获得用于性能评估和增强的先进测试设施。本文介绍了一种基于 1000 W 金属卤化物灯和通过参数迭代优化的截断椭球反射器的太阳能模拟器的成本效益设计。复杂的几何结构被简化为一个三参数模型。使用该模型可实现最佳设计。使用光谱法和总辐射法制造和测试反射器。装置在启动后的稳定时间以 10 秒的间隔测量为～4 分钟。焦平面内的平均强度为 2220–3117 W/m ²对于方形尺寸为 2 × 2 cm ²的光伏电池。因此，用于本研究的光线追踪模型在预测椭圆聚光器的光强度方面是保守的。类似地，光谱分析显示太阳模拟器的自然阳光和人造光之间的相似度为 88.7%，从而提倡模拟器能够证明温度对光伏电池功率输出的影响。总体而言，单个灯的总硬件和制造成本不到 500 美元。