Abstract
AbstractThis article presents a simple comparative model which has been developed for the estimation of the performance of photovoltaic (PV) products' cells in indoor environments. The model predicts the performance of PV solar cells, as a function of the distance from a spectrum of artificial (fluorescent light, halogen light, and light‐emitting diodes) and natural light. It intends to support designers, while creating PV‐integrated products for indoor use. For the model's validation, PV cells of 12 commercially available PV‐powered products with power ranging from 0.8 to 4 mWp were tested indoors under artificial illumination and natural light. The model is based on the physical measurements of natural and artificial irradiance indoors, along with literature data of PV technologies under low irradiance conditions. The input data of the model are the surface of the solar cell (in m2), the wavelength‐dependent spectral response (SR) of the PV cell, the spectral irradiance indoors, and solar cell's distance from light sources. The model calculates solar cells' efficiency and power produced under the specific indoor conditions. If using the measured SR of a PV cell and the irradiance as measured indoors, the model can predict the performance of a PV product under mixed indoor light with a typical inaccuracy of around 25%, which is sufficient for a design process. Measurements revealed that under mixed indoor lighting of around 20 W/m2, the efficiency of solar cells in 12 commercially available PV products ranges between 5% and 6% for amorphous silicon (a‐Si) cells, 4–6% for multicrystalline silicon (mc‐Si) cells, and 5–7% for the monocrystalline silicon (c‐Si) cells.
Highlights
The term product-integrated photovoltaic (PIPV) [1, 2] is used for all types of products that contain solar cells in one or more of their surfaces, aiming at providing power during the use of a product
We focused on PIPV containing PV technologies that occur most often [1, 10], that is, crystalline silicon (c-Si), multicrystalline silicon, and amorphous silicon (a-Si), under artificial irradiance of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), light-emitting diodes (LED), incandescent light, and indoor irradiance originating from solar light
This article describes a model, which estimates the performance of PV cells at an indoor environment and under mixed indoor light that partially contains outdoor light
Summary
The term product-integrated photovoltaic (PIPV) [1, 2] is used for all types of products that contain solar cells in one or more of their surfaces, aiming at providing power during the use of a product. The application of photovoltaics (PV) as a power source for consumer products is already common for more than 30 years, since the first solar calculators. Thereafter, integrated solar cells in consumer products became more popular and at present PV cells are applied in both indoor and outdoor applications, for example, lanterns, chargers, speakers, bike lights, solar watches, etc. Basic elements are solar cell, an energy storage device (i.e., a capacitor or battery), and a diode to prevent discharging of the battery through the solar panel. Matching of the battery voltage with the solar cell is done by creating a small solar panel with the right number of solar cells in series for an appropriate voltage
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