Researcher discusses methods for determining photovoltaic cells’ performance under indoor artificial lighting.
There have been many recent advancements in photovoltaic modules that can harness energy from the ambient indoor lighting. The effectiveness of a photovoltaic module varies greatly depending on the type of material and the type of artificial light such as LED, fluorescent light, etc. The amount of power generated from such lighting is often quite low, but enough to power low-power devices such as wireless sensor nodes.
Behrang Hamadani, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has reported realistic data of harvesting ambient artificial light by different solar panel materials. He reported their study in a virtual conference held between 4-6 August 2021. He will discuss methods for determining PV cells’ performance under artificial lighting.
“Since this area of PV testing and characterization is relatively new, there are currently no universal standards for accurate measurement of electrical performance of these PV devices under different types of artificial light,” said Hamadani. “Therefore, there is a growing need to come up with accurate methods of measuring the performance of solar cells under indoor artificial lighting and adopt new universal standards.”
“If people are able to perform more reliable and repeatable measurements of their devices, they’ll be in a better position to incrementally improve the material properties and make progress in increasing the cell efficiency,” he said.
