Development of a truncated ellipsoidal reflector-based metal halide lamp solar simulator for characterization of photovoltaic cells

ABSTRACT

With the increasing prevalence of solar photovoltaics in the renewable energy mix, the need for device-level assessment has greatly increased. This is challenging in rural, off-grid areas with limited access to advanced testing facilities for performance evaluation and enhancement. This paper presents a cost-effective design of a solar simulator based on a 1000 W metal halide lamp coupled with a truncated ellipsoidal reflector optimized through parametric iterations. The complex geometry is reduced to a three-parameter model. An optimal design is attained using this model. The reflector is fabricated and tested using spectrometry and pyranometry. Stabilization time for the device after the start-up was measured at intervals of 10 seconds to be ~ 4 minutes. The average intensity in the focal plane is 2220–3117 W/m² for a photovoltaic cell having a square size of 2 × 2 cm². Hence, the ray-tracing model used for this study is conservative in predicting light intensity for an elliptical concentrator. Similarly, spectral analysis shows a strong similarity of 88.7% between natural sunlight and artificial light of the solar simulator thereby advocating the capability of the simulator to demonstrate the effect of temperature on the power output of photovoltaic cells. Overall, the total hardware and fabrication cost amounts to less than $500 for a single lamp.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar simulator
• spectrometry
• pyranometry
• photovoltaic
• ellipsoidal reflector

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan through grant number NRPU10462.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) [NRPU 10462].

Notes on contributors

Muhammad Abdullah Haroon Shah

Muhammad Abdullah Haroon Shah received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan. He has worked in industry and academia as well. He has working experience related to thermal power plants and solar energy. He also worked as research assistant in National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan. His research areas include renewable energy, heat transfer and energy devices.

Hamza Butt

Hamza Butt is a Mechanical Engineering graduate of Nust School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. Currently he is working at his family business as a Product Development Engineer. His ultimate goal is to make export quality products through efficient product design.

Muaaz Farooq

Muaaz Farooq is a mechanical engineer from NUST currently working as a production engineer at a manufacturing firm in Islamabad. His area of expertise lies in injection and blow molding field.

Muhammad Nouman Ihsan

Muhammad Nouman Ihsan received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan. He is currently working as a design engineer in the R & D department of a firm that provides industrial engineering solutions. His interests include waste heat recovery and energy efficiency.

Muhammad Sajid

Muhammad Sajid received the Bachelor of Engineering degree from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Masters degree from École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) ParisTech, France and doctorate from the University of Cergy Pontoise in France in 2010. He completed a postdoc from the Texas A&M University, Qatar and is currently an Assistant Professor with the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan. His research interests include experimental and computational fluid dynamics, flow visualization, as well as multiphase fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena.

Emad Uddin

Emad Uddin received his Ph.D. in 2014 from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. His research was focused on the computational modelling of the fluid flexible body interaction (FSI) for real life flows including anguilliform locomotion, swimming jellyfish and the cell flowing through the blood. He performed the Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the Navier Stokes (NS) equation coupled with Immersed boundary method (IBM) to solve the multifarious phenomenon involved in real life as well as the biological flows.