Using CAD software to simulate PV energy yield – The case of product integrated photovoltaic operated under indoor solar irradiation

Abstract

In this paper, we show that photovoltaic (PV) energy yields can be simulated using standard rendering and ray-tracing features of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. To this end, three-dimensional (3-D) sceneries are ray-traced in CAD. The PV power output is then modeled by translating irradiance intensity data of rendered images back into numerical data. To ensure accurate results, the solar irradiation data used as input is compared to numerical data obtained from rendered images, showing excellent agreement. As expected, also ray-tracing precision in the CAD software proves to be very high. To demonstrate PV energy yield simulations using this innovative concept, solar radiation time course data of a few days was modeled in 3-D to simulate distributions of irradiance incident on flat, singleand double-bend shapes and a PV powered computer mouse located on a window sill. Comparisons of measured to simulated PV output of the mouse show that also in practice, simulation accuracies can be very high. Theoretically, this concept has great potential, as it can be adapted to suit a wide range of solar energy applications, such as sun-tracking and concentrator systems, Building Integrated PV (BIPV) or Product Integrated PV (PIPV). However, graphical user interfaces of 'CAD-PV' software tools are not yet available.

State-of-the-art review of solar design tools and methods for assessing daylighting and solar potential for building-integrated photovoltaics

“…However, this approach was not integrated into CAD environment and therefore not very useful from architects' point of view. Furthermore, slow computation time caused by old inefficient methods of ray tracing approach caused delays and discontinuity to the design process [200] [201]. To address this issue, rasterization has found to be used in a real-time manner, simulating irradiance for PV products and BIPV in a virtual reality environment [202].…”

Simulating the integration of photovoltaic technology on the modern infantry soldier using modelling and simulation: scenarios and guidelines

“…The study of the performance of the so--called Product Integrated PhotoVoltaics (PIPV) 16 is twofold. Firstly, to investigate the performance and electrical characteristics of the PV device itself; secondly to study the effectiveness of light harvesting, which is also the main focus and aim of our work.…”

Case E: Design of a Solar‐Powered Wireless Computer Mouse

“…Finally, PV-generated charge was assumed to be lowered by battery charge efficiency (90% constant), battery self-discharge (15% per month), and the efficiency of electronic circuitries (90% constant), which also provides maximum power point tracking (with 100% accuracy assumed). To deal with the many parameters, we developed a computer tool to simulate the energy flows in PV-powered consumer systems (Reich et al, 2010b).…”