Artificial Light Energy Harvester Using Low Start Voltage Solar Cell

Abstract

Solar cells are widely used as an alternative renewable energy. On future, the trend of electric car will demand more solar cells mounted on the roof to support main electric source. The solar cells work optimally during the day because it convert sunlight onto energy to produce usable power. Meanwhile, the intensity of ambient light decreased at night, except from artificial light such as street light. In fact, this condition makes solar cells capable of generating enough voltage and electric current relatively. In this study, an experiments for 12 street lights with standard illumination were conducted and reported to measure the voltage and current generated by a 10 WP Polycrystalline solar cells at night. The average power obtained from them are 67.06 W. The energies which are generated can be harvest and store on smart batteries or used directly by a microcontroller system. We conclude that our system can be as efficient as energy harvester system when optimized by low start voltage solar cells to generate more energy from artificial light mounted as street lights. These findings shows our ideas potential and further research needed to get usable energy for other electric dependent system.