Simulating Interior Radiant Energy for the Design and Prototyping of an Indoor Solar PV Lamp
M.H. Verkou (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)
Hesan Ziar (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)
O. Isabella (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)
M. Zeman (TU Delft - Electrical Sustainable Energy)
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Abstract
The increasing development of photovoltaic (PV) technologies allows for more feasible PV products, that can split the fixed big electrical infrastructure into smaller mobile systems, suitable for future smart buildings. This research, investigates opportunities for interior PV (IPV) products, that harvest indoor ambient light. The outcome is a working prototype of a standalone indoor solar lamp. An indoor light simulation model is presented and validated for two rooms in Delft with absolute error of 10% compared to measurements over five days per room. The prototype consists of a tailor-made, foil-to-foil laminated PV module, consisting of 36 pieces of laser cut SunPower interdigitated back contact (IBC) cells. At standard test conditions, a maximum DC output of 35.9 Wp was measured, corresponding to a module efficiency of 20.3%. Furthermore, a charge controller with maximum power point tracking algorithm was used to charge a 12 V polymer lithium-ion battery pack. The combination of pyroelectric infrared (PIR) motion sensor detector and a light sensor module assures a conservative use of a 2.4 W strip of light emitting diodes (LED). Keywords: Indoor photovoltaics (IPV), interior light simulation, RADIANCE, PV module design, prototyping, SunPower IBC technology, laser cutting