LEDBasedSolarSimulator-IEEE.pdfVIP

1 LED Based Solar Simulator Abhay Mohan M.V, Student Member, IEEE, Jishnu Pavithran, Student Member, IEEE, K Lijo Osten, Jinumon A and Prof. C. P. Mrinalini Government Engineering College, Sreekrishnapuram under the University of Calicut, Kerala, India. Abstract—Solar energy is one of the most underutilized among the renewable energy sources available to us. Thus, the testing of the solar panels and photovoltaic cells used to harvest solar energy are extremely important. A solar simulator provides a controllable indoor test facility for testing solar cells and photovoltaic modules under laboratory conditions by producing illumination approximating natural sunlight. This project focusses on matching the output spectrum of the simulator to the reference spectral distribution of sunlight in the visible spectral range at AM1.5G as de?ned in ASTM G173-03 standard. The aim is to achieve Class A Spectral Concurrence (matching) as de?ned in the ASTM E927-05 standard in the 400 nm - 700 nm region. The high power LEDs used for this purpose have wavelengths 470 nm, 505 nm, 530 nm, 655 nm and white LEDs. Index Terms—Solar Simulator, Photovoltaic Testing, ASTM Standards I. INTRODUCTION I N this period of energy crisis, researches in the ?eld of renewable energy resources are gaining considerable momentum. Solar energy is one of the most underutilized among them, mostly because of the low ef?ciency of solar cells. Thus, the testing of the solar panels and photovoltaic cells are extremely important. A solar simulator is an equipment that provides illumination approximating natural sunlight. Solar simulator is widely used to provide a controllable indoor test facility under laboratory conditions for the testing of solar cells. Several types of lamps have been used as the light sources within solar simulators. They are Xenon arc lamps, Metal Halide arc lamps and Quartz Tungsten Halogen (QTH) lamps. The limitations and disadvantages of solar simulators today such as cost, power consu