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The effect of the type of illumination on the energy harvesting performance of solar cells

The effect of the type of illumination on the energy harvesting performance of solar cells
The effect of the type of illumination on the energy harvesting performance of solar cells
This paper presents the effect of the illumination type on the performance of photovoltaic energy harvesting for application in buildings. A range of different types of solar cells are available to suit differing illumination sources and intensities. Modules made from polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon and dye-sensitized TiO2 were investigated under illumination from incandescent, fluorescent, white light LED and RGB colour-controllable LED light sources in this paper. It is shown that it is important to select the solar cell to suit the type of light. In this paper, the maximum power points of four types of solar cell have been investigated under three different electrical light sources for various illumination levels allowing the selection of the optimum solar cell type for a given combination of electrical light source and a particular illumination level. An analysis of the effect of varying the spectral composition of the illumination is achieved by using a colour-controllable LED to provide the primary colours of white light. Generally, most power is harvested by solar cells under incandescent illumination sources followed by compact fluorescent (CFL) and then LED. The amorphous-Si solar cells tested show a similar power output under all three illumination sources, therefore a device using these should perform consistently under all lighting sources, whereas the poly-crystalline silicon solar cell tested shows a significant difference between incandescent and CFL/white light LED sources which could restrict operation to just incandescent lighting.
building environment, energy harvesting, solar cell, led, maximum power point
0038-092X
21-29
Li, Yi
76dfac3c-5e81-4b4e-8887-98e9d91dd119
Grabham, Neil J.
00695728-6280-4d06-a943-29142f2547c9
Beeby, Steve P.
ba565001-2812-4300-89f1-fe5a437ecb0d
Tudor, John
46eea408-2246-4aa0-8b44-86169ed601ff
Li, Yi
76dfac3c-5e81-4b4e-8887-98e9d91dd119
Grabham, Neil J.
00695728-6280-4d06-a943-29142f2547c9
Beeby, Steve P.
ba565001-2812-4300-89f1-fe5a437ecb0d
Tudor, John
46eea408-2246-4aa0-8b44-86169ed601ff

Li, Yi, Grabham, Neil J., Beeby, Steve P. and Tudor, John (2015) The effect of the type of illumination on the energy harvesting performance of solar cells. Solar Energy, 111, 21-29. (doi:10.1016/j.solener.2014.10.024).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper presents the effect of the illumination type on the performance of photovoltaic energy harvesting for application in buildings. A range of different types of solar cells are available to suit differing illumination sources and intensities. Modules made from polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon and dye-sensitized TiO2 were investigated under illumination from incandescent, fluorescent, white light LED and RGB colour-controllable LED light sources in this paper. It is shown that it is important to select the solar cell to suit the type of light. In this paper, the maximum power points of four types of solar cell have been investigated under three different electrical light sources for various illumination levels allowing the selection of the optimum solar cell type for a given combination of electrical light source and a particular illumination level. An analysis of the effect of varying the spectral composition of the illumination is achieved by using a colour-controllable LED to provide the primary colours of white light. Generally, most power is harvested by solar cells under incandescent illumination sources followed by compact fluorescent (CFL) and then LED. The amorphous-Si solar cells tested show a similar power output under all three illumination sources, therefore a device using these should perform consistently under all lighting sources, whereas the poly-crystalline silicon solar cell tested shows a significant difference between incandescent and CFL/white light LED sources which could restrict operation to just incandescent lighting.

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Accepted/In Press date: October 2014
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 November 2014
Published date: January 2015
Keywords: building environment, energy harvesting, solar cell, led, maximum power point
Organisations: EEE

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 373155
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/373155
ISSN: 0038-092X
PURE UUID: bd9e7364-f73e-4b95-9393-b1d22b998ffb
ORCID for Neil J. Grabham: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6385-0331
ORCID for Steve P. Beeby: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0800-1759
ORCID for John Tudor: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1179-9455

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Date deposited: 12 Jan 2015 09:59
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:46

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Contributors

Author: Yi Li
Author: Neil J. Grabham ORCID iD
Author: Steve P. Beeby ORCID iD
Author: John Tudor ORCID iD

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