Solar Lighting System Research Articles

A Large Scale Daylighting System Based on a Stepped Thickness Waveguide

This paper presents a study on the use of optical fiber and a solar concentrator for a building daylighting system. Daylighting is essential for improving indoor environments and reducing electric lighting power consumption in office buildings. Traditionally, optical fiber daylighting systems were implemented only on a small scale. More complicated technologies are required for more amounts of daylight over further distance via a smaller light guider. The proposed solar lighting system with optical fiber is composed of an array of linear Fresnel lenses and a stepped thickness waveguide. The linear Fresnel lenses collect light into the stepped thickness waveguide. The stepped-thickness waveguide is an optical component which redirects focused sunlight from the vertical direction to the horizontal direction, and it guides light to the attached optical fiber. Simulation models were developed using commercial optical simulation tools (LightTools™). The optical efficiency and angular tolerance of the system are analyzed. The overall system cost is also estimated. Some considerations on the economic expansion of the system in terms of efficiency and estimated annual average energy saving are discussed. The results show that the presented optical fiber daylighting system is a strong candidate for low-price and highly efficient solution for solar energy application to building energy savings.

SIMULATION MODELING OF LIGHTING SYSTEM ON THE BASE OF PHOTOVOLTAIC CONVERTER AND BATTERY STORAGE

The paper describes the simulation modeling of autonomous solar lighting system based on photovoltaic cells, energy storage battery and power consumer in the form of LED lamps. The aim of research is to develop a model what allows to explore a system behavior (changes in voltages, currents and battery state of charge) under controlled conditions like solar intensity, photovoltaic converter efficiency and lighting load power. The research includes the testing of model under different load power conditions at the same solar power and battery charge capacity. Testing results have proved the adequacy of model. The proposed model can be used for studying the charge/discharge processes in the different types of batteries for such energy systems including solar and wind renewable sources.

Pemantauan Lapangan Sistem Penerangan Tenaga Surya 6 x 50 Wp di Sleman

Solar module and battery are important components in photovoltaic systems. These components have higher investment cost compared to controller device, lamp, cable, and the frame. Currently, there are six of 50 Wp of solar lighting systems (SLS) installed for cowshed lighting purpose in Sleman. The aim of this research is to investigate the pattern of electricity usage in SLS and to assess its performance, especially in the solar modules and their batteries after two months period of operation. The output voltage and current of solar module, the voltage of charging battery, the load consumption time, and the battery voltage at the end of charging and discharging were measured. The data were analyzed to determine the output power of solar module, average daily load, system performance ratio, and battery performance. It was revealed that the average daily load and performance ratio are 7.26 Ah/day and 49% respectively. Whilst at the end of charging of the battery is 100%, the maximum depth of discharge is 18.03% and its average efficiency is 59.85%. Overall, the SLSs have been well-operated; the solar module has produced electricity and all of the batteries were fully charged from the daily sunlight. However, it appears that the level of electric energy usage is still low. To increase the SLS’s efficiency it is recommended to optimize the usage of the produced electricity by intensifying livestock handling during night time. This solution also needs periodical monitoring of the SLSs which in turn will increase their lifetime.

Use pattern of solar lighting system in rural households

Use pattern of solar lighting system in rural households

Design of Solar Transmission System using Fiber Optic for Indoor Lighting

<p>Transmission of fiber solar lighting system is a lighting system using sunlight as a source. The system consists of two main components, there are: solar collectors and optical fiber. Solar collector is used to collect and focus sunlight into the focal point. Sunlight that received by collector is transmitted by optical fiber into the room, primarily through efficiency of the collector system. In this final project, we designed the transmission systems via optical fiber for lighting on the Photonics Laboratory ITS. Transmission of solar lighting systems used parabolic collector as a major collector and end glow plastic optical fiber as the transmission with length of 50m. There are four types of collector systems were designed, i.e. parabolic, parabolic with flat mirrors, parabolic with pyramid and parabolic with a cone. Characterization system consists of measuring reflectance values, the output intensity of the optical fiber, and the intensity light distribution in the room. The results of measurements of the reflectance (R) collector surface with paint gray and silver are 0.225 and 0.475, respectively. In the measurement light output intensity of the optical fiber with variation types of collector systems, it is obtained that the highest value from the combination of parabolic collector with a cone. Distribution of light output from the optical fiber in the room was also calculated and measured. </p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: collector; optical fiber; solar lighting</p>

Business innovation and diffusion of off-grid solar technologies in India

India is a country where 300 million people still live without access to formal electricity, and where hundreds of millions more live with irregular supply through the existing grid network. This paper examines business innovation in the diffusion of off-grid solar technologies in India. An in-country survey of off-grid solar energy providers from across the nation was conducted and coupled with extensive field interviews. Findings reveal that most off-grid solar energy enterprises are not operating in the government subsidy market and that more than half are not offering any form of financing to their customers when selling their products. Also, more than half of the enterprises are selling their products in areas where the electric grid is present. Analysis of data collected suggests that an increase in product categories (lanterns, solar home lighting systems (SHS), micro-grids, etc.) negatively affects unit scaling for a firm but increases the likelihood that the firm is offering financing for its products. In areas without the electricity grid, the number of off-grid solar technology options decreases because the firms operating in the area have fewer categories of technology options. This study finds that off-grid solar technology enterprises that focus on fewer technology categories are more likely to achieve unit scaling. This finding must be balanced with the fact that the extent of the grid has not inhibited the market for off-grid solar technologies, but rather affects the number of categories of technologies that can be offered in those regions. Development programs should thus recognize that those who need electricity access the most may be the ones with the most limited technology options.

Sustainable domestic lighting options for poor people—an empirical study

The availability of sustainable and reasonably priced sources of energy for lighting is a prerequisite for the development of rural India. This study attempts to take a close look at the micro-level energy scene and its various options for domestic lighting, considering socio-economic condition of the poor people in rural areas. The concept of calculating levelized cost as cost per 300 lumen-hour is applied on source–device combinations of lighting and validated in Bargaon Community Development Block of Sundergarh District in Odisha, India, for finding out the low-priced energy sources for sufficient lighting. It is revealed that LED and CFL through solar photovoltaic and electricity should be the best choice of domestic lighting. Most of the households (97 %), even electrified, use kerosene regularly. There is a huge potential of biogas and solar photovoltaic which can overcome the problem of power cut, indoor pollution, carbon emission, etc. Supporting electrification to all households, this study is also justifying about efficient devices and off-grid power generation through SPV for all households and biogas for possible 2300 households. Government should immediately intervene, providing capital subsidy, micro-finance schemes, other credit mechanisms, training to local youths, etc. with adequate infrastructure and organizational development to make the clean energy such as solar home lighting system and biogas plant affordable and accessible by the poor villagers.

ANALISIS PERPUTARAN RADIASI SURYA TERHADAP KINERJA SEL FOTOLISTRIK SEBAGAI ENERGI RAMAH LINGKUNGAN DI NUSA PENIDA KABUPATEN KLUNGKUNG PROVINSI BALI

Photoelectric cells is an equipment made of semiconductor material of Silicone (Si14) functioned to catchand converse sun light to become electric energy directly. Through photoelectric phenomenon, that sun lightas particles with frequency/wavelength of certain light can release electrons in a material. This electrons’movement can produce electric current. The aim of this research was to find out the performance of aphotoelectric cells collector in conversing sun light to become electric energy due to the rotation of solarradiation in Nusa Penida.The research was conducted at PLTS electric home solar system Nusa Penida for 5 days the measurementto the parameter of Current (Isc) and Voltage (Vsc). Each measurement had duration of lighting for 8 hourseach from 09.00 until 16.00 Central Indonesian Time, with time interval of 30 minutes. Measurement anddata analysis produced in the research on Saturday, June 29th 2013 obtained: the amount of solar radiationarrived at earth’s outer atmosphere was 1321.90 W/m2, and passed along to earth’s surface at 621.29 W/m2,and received by photoelectric cells collector as heat power at 113.63 Watt, and efficiency produced was 25.3%,and electric power produced was 28.74 Watt, and can be equalized with fossil energy of 0.0237 liter ofgasoline, or equivalent to 106.65 rupiah. It meant that, photoelectric cells collector with area of 50 x 110cm2in a day can protect earth from global warming of 28.74 Watt, in using of fossil energy at 0.0237 liter ofgasoline.The efficient performance of photoelectric cells was still considered small. In order to achieve big capacityof electric power required a lot of collector modules and large area, so that with the growing of semiconductortechnology, it is expected that whenever possible it can reduce electron binding energy on material, andoptimize solar lighting system to photoelectric cells collector modules, so that the efficient performance ofphotoelectric cells can be expected to be above 90%.

Design of Solar Optical Fiber Lighting System for Enhanced Lighting in Highway Tunnel Threshold Zone: A Case Study of Huashuyan Tunnel in China

In this paper, the principle, structural composition, materials, and characteristics of solar optical fiber lighting system were discussed. The different luminance requirements of different zones of highway tunnel were identified on the basis of the analysis of tunnel lighting considering drivers’ visually self-accommodating physiological function for luminance change. Taken Huashuyan Tunnel of G109 Highway located in Hohhot of Inner Mongolia in China as the case study, the system design of solar optical fiber lighting for enhanced lighting in threshold zone of highway tunnel was made. It was indicated through calculation that the design length of solar optical fiber enhanced lighting was related to the design speed, longitudinal slope, and overhead clearance of the tunnel, and the design luminance of solar optical fiber enhanced lighting was related to the luminance outside the tunnel, the design speed, and the design traffic flow of the tunnel. Luminance analysis of the solar optical fiber lighting system of Huashuyan Tunnel was made based on the on-site experiment. Also, the 3D illuminance simulation results by DIALux software were made to indicate that the solar optical fiber lighting system in Huashuyan Tunnel still well met the enhanced lighting demand even not considering the contribution of LED lighting.

Paying for solar home lighting system: A case of Un-Electrified Villages in India

Energy is central to concerns about sustainable development and poverty reduction. It affects all aspects of socioeconomic development, including livelihoods, water, agriculture, population, health, education, job creation, and genderrelated issues. Current patterns of energy production and consumption have direct negative impact on the environment and natural resources at the local, regional and global levels. Energy is an important factor for achieving the goals of sustainable development: social equity, economic growth and environmental protection. Worldwide, two billion people have no access to electricity and nearly as many rely on traditional fuels to meet their energy needs, particularly for lighting and non-lighting applications1. It seriously affects their lives and also overburdens them. It further limits their search for educational and income-generating opportunities. In order to achieve sustainable development objectives, conventional approaches to energy must be reoriented towards promotion of energy systems based on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleaner fossil fuel technologies, which will make it possible, concurrently, to address social, economic, and environmental concerns.

Self-Regulated Solar Lighting System

Electricity is a prime concern in today's world. On achieved by incorporating the real time clock using DS1307 IC. observing the path through which we travel daily we can see The block diagram shown in Figure 1 provides the transparent that a lot of electricity is wasted by glowing sodium wafer outline of the system proposed here. lamps and even the traditional tube lights on the electric posts at unnecessary intervals. The self regulating solar system enters into action and exits from functioning depending upon the output from the Day/Night sensing unit. Once the unit indicates arrival of night then the system turns ON, the controlling unit thereafter controls the illumination level of the lamp depending upon the outputs of interruption detector, temperature sensor & real time clock. The system also contains an embedded temperature sensing unit that senses the temperature of the lamp module, thereafter preventing the operation of the lamp at undesirable temperature condition and hence increasing the life span of the LEDs a used in the lamp.

Solar LED Intelligent Lighting Systems Based on Internet of Things and New Energy Storage System

Recently, solar LED lighting systems are widely used because of their energy-saving and environment friendly characteristics. But there are also some key problems in current solar LED lighting systems, such as follows: First, the lifetime of lead-acid battery is too short so that the whole system lose efficacy soon; Second, current solar LED lighting systems usually are isolated systems, so its controllability is worse. This paper propose a new solar LED intelligent lighting systems based on Internet of Things and Supercapacitor ,which can tackle these two problems better, so the solar LED intelligent lighting systems will advance applications of solar LED lighting systems.

Adaptive Solar Power Supply System Based on SCM

This paper presented a kind of design principle and method of the adaptive solar power supply system, and draw out the lighting system, hardware circuit and software flow charts of the system. Using MCU control solar lighting system to track the sun direction, the system collects the sun angle information through optical sensor in order to use solar energy in high efficiency. The device not only can provide reliable electric energy for the highway cameras, visibility detectors and other dispersion equipment, but has the advantages of low carbon, environmental protection, intelligence, etc.

Energy Analysis of Solar Home Lighting System With Microcontroller-Based Charge Controller

In this paper, a solar powered home lighting system in the Electrical Engineering Department of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur is analyzed for energy using a personal computer simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (circuit simulation software, PSpice 9.1). The home lighting system consists of a solar panel of 37 Wp, a 45 Ah battery, a solar charge controller, dc loads of two 9 W compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and a dc fan of 14 W. Through the solar panel, the battery is charged during day time. In the night, when solar power is not available, the battery provides power as a backup to the dc load consisting of two CFLs and a dc fan. The aim of the paper is to analyze the solar home lighting system for energy gain/loss with a microcontroller-based charge controller. From the analysis, it is concluded that the solar home lighting system is not designed for continuous energy gain as per manufacturer's specifications. The design needs to be modified to have energy gain in the system for Nagpur, India. A designed microcontroller-based charge controller is also analyzed. The advantages of a microcontroller 89C2051-based charge controller are its simple design, low cost, logic change facility with change of programming of microcontroller, presence of liquid crystal display (LCD) with battery charge status, and display of different messages. Ride software is used as an assembler for generating the required hex file of program and it is used for burning in the microcontroller IC with the help of Vegarobokit (a microcontroller programmer developer) to make a microcontroller programmer.

A Novel Control Algorithm for Maximum Power Point Tracking of Automatic Solar Lighting System

This article describes the advantages and disadvantages of several common maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control algorithms. And integrating various control algorithms, we propose a novel MPPT control algorithm that using the short-circuit current method at the left of maximum power point, next to the maximum power point using the perturbation and observation method of variable step, which becomes gradually approaching step by step to search, the right of the maximum power point using the open circuit voltage method. In order to verify the effectiveness of the improved algorithm, this paper also compares the traditional perturbation and observation method with the improved algorithm for the simulation, the solar cell output power curve obtained in the experiment will be introduced in the text in detail.

Measuring Rural Development

This article is an attempt to assess the impact of the solar home lighting systems in the socio-economic development of rural areas and to measure the extent of welfare and level of satisfaction among the beneficiaries of solar home lighting systems in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Focus group discussions techniques were used to gather the information from the selected villages. The solar home lighting systems have improved the standard of living of the beneficiaries. They now watch TV and listen to the radio for entertainment and news. School-going children can study in the evenings for longer time and score more marks in the examinations. Girls among the Adivasis are encouraged to go to school. Drop-out rate has been reduced. Women find it more comfortable to do household chores. Working hours have been increased in the evening. Income generation activities are also being initiated, but at a slower pace. Expenditure on kerosene has been reduced significantly. Solar home lighting systems thus bring socio-economic changes in remote villages for the better.

The use of geoinformation technologies for renewable energy and regional aspects of developing renewable energy in Russia

The work presents the results of development of the geoinformation system Renewable Energy Sources of Russia. Regional maps of installations and resources are presented. The problem of determination of small hydropower potential connected with the shortage of hydrological data is stated. Assessment of efficiency of techno-economic analysis of simulation-based autonomous solar lighting systems is described. Overview of regional experience, policies and targets is included. In many countries of the world renewable energy (RE) has already become a dynamically developing branch of energy generation, mechanical engineering, fundamental and applied sciences, equipment and technology. Thus the main purpose of RE development is finally ensuring access for consumers to energy, diversification of energy sources, consolidation of energy security in regions and states. The consumer, both at the level of government and at the level of the end-user, first of all needs extensive and diverse information about: technical means, renewable energy resources, economic aspects (profitability and equipment payback period), experience of development and use of power supply systems on renewable energy sources and installed objects working on RE. Due to this fact the process of developing and providing the consumer with various information resources was started in many countries: at first it was printed products, later it became digital, including access to the Internet. Owing to great value of the geographical aspect during work with data files in the field of RE, geoinformation (GIS) technologies are actively used. These resources are provided both on commercial basis, and in open access. The assessment of renewable energy resources in Russia, were certainly carried out long before the emergence of modern mapping means and data analysis. Nevertheless now there is a question not only in general estimates, but also more exact local data on the renewable energy sources corresponding to inquiries of experts in the field of power plant design, development of data acquisition regulations and their accuracy. The advantage of using GIS-technologies and the need for cooperation of experts from such fields as physics, technics and geography is obvious.

The Day-and-Night Solar Lighting System

In this paper, a novel light-absorpting shade and optical fiber and long persistent luminescent phosphor materials provided a safe and reliable day-and-night solar lighting system. It was not only save resource, reduce pollution, at the same time introduced solar light into the indoor to satisfy the lighting needs. The novel light-absorpting shade fabricated nanodiamond film to achieve the goal of self-cleaning,corrosion-resistant and corrosion-high temperature. This novel solar lighting system used of total reflection characteristic of optical fiber, and long persistent luminescent phosphor materials short storage time, high brightness to realize the purpose of day and night lighting.

Performance Detection Device of Solar Lighting System Based on LABVIEW

Although the Chinese solar semiconductor lighting industry has been developing rapidly, the detecting technology of this has developed slowly. Therefore, the performance testing device of solar lighting system would be practical significant. In view of this, this paper was mainly using the Hall current sensor, USB data acquisition card and other components to build a solar lighting system detection device. During the actual testing, the system can monitor and evaluate the real-time performance of the photovoltaic street lighting system very well, and achieves the desired effect.

Benefits of glass fibers in solar fiber optic lighting systems

The transmission properties and coupling of solar light have been studied for glass core multimode fibers in order to verify their benefits for a solar fiber optic lighting system. The light transportation distance can be extended from 20 m with plastic fibers to over 100 m with the kind of glass fibers studied here. A high luminous flux, full visible spectrum, as well as an outstanding color rendering index (98) and correlated color temperature similar to the direct sun light outside have been obtained. Thus the outstanding quality of solar light transmitted through these fibers would improve the visibility of all kinds of objects compared to fluorescent and other artificial lighting. Annual relative lighting energy savings of 36% in Uppsala, Sweden, and 76% in Dubai were estimated in an office environment. The absolute savings can be doubled by using glass optical fibers, and are estimated to be in the order of 550 kWh/year in Sweden and 1160 kWh/year in Dubai for one system of only 0.159 m(2) total light collecting area. The savings are dependent on the fiber length, the daily usage time of the interior, the type of artificial lighting substituted, the system light output flux, and the available time of sunny weather at the geographic location.