Construction of Tungsten Halogen, Pulsed LED, and Combined Tungsten Halogen-LED Solar Simulators for Solar CellI-VCharacterization and Electrical Parameters Determination

Abstract

I-Vcharacterization of solar cells is generally done under natural sunlight or solar simulators operating in either a continuous mode or a pulse mode. Simulators are classified on three features of irradiance, namely, spectral match with respect to air mass 1.5, spatial uniformity, and temporal stability. Commercial solar simulators use Xenon lamps and halogen lamps, whereas LED-based solar simulators are being developed. In this work, we build and test seven simulators for solar cell characterization, namely, one tungsten halogen simulator, four monochromatic (red, green, blue, and white) LED simulators, one multicolor LED simulator, and one tungsten halogen-blue LED simulator. The seven simulators provide testing at nonstandard test condition. High irradiance from simulators is obtained by employing elevated supply voltage to tungsten halogen lamps and high pulsing voltages to LEDs. This new approach leads to higher irradiance not previously obtained from tungsten halogen lamps and LEDs. FromI-Vcurves, electrical parameters of solar cell are made and corrected based on methods recommended in the IEC 60891 Standards. Corrected values obtained from non-STC measurements are in good agreement with those obtained from Class AAA solar simulator.

Light source selection for a solar simulator for thermal applications: A review

“…More recently, research work has focused on terrestrial radiation simulators. These devices are used for a wide range of applications including testing, calibrating and characterising photovoltaic (PV) cells [11][12][13][14] and for the clinical testing of sunscreens [15][16][17]. The list of applications extends to the automotive industry for testing dashboards, steering wheels and air bags [18][19][20]; PV materials ageing tests [21][22][23][24]; studying the effects of light on the growth of plants and algae [25][26][27] and testing of thermal/thermo-chemical devices for use in the chemical reforming and production of chemical elements [28][29][30].…”

A simple solar simulator with highly stable controlled irradiance for solar panel characterization

“…1 A group of solar simulators with nonconcentrating uniformly distributed lights are applied in the examination of solar cells and solar thermal collectors. [2][3][4][5] Another group of solar simulators with highflux concentrators are operated in producing high temperatures for research in materials processing, thermochemical reactions, solar fuels production, and simulated solar thermal power generation. [6][7][8][9][10] Solar cells along with batteries and power managements were used to supply electrical power for various monitoring systems, such as natural disaster monitoring systems, [11][12][13][14][15] structure health monitoring, 16 aquaculture monitoring, 17 and underground mining area monitoring, 18 which is placed in remote or inaccessible areas.…”

A Modified Halogen Solar Simulator

“…A sun simulator is a controllable device that provides artificial solar irradiance referring to the standard spectrum i.e. air mass 1.5 used for the testing of solar cells [1]. By deploying a solar simulator, some disadvantages of natural sunlight-based experiment such as unstable weather conditions and low reproducibility of measurements can be addressed.…”

“…Halogen is a type of lamps that has been widely applied as a solar simulator light source [1][2][3][4]. In addition to its low price, the use of the type of the lamp is based on its characteristics which shares similar spectrum to sunlight [5].…”