Using CAD software to simulate PV energy yield - The case of product integrated photovoltaic operated under indoor solar irradiation

Journal Article · Sun Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Solar Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SOLENER.2010.05.015· OSTI ID:21337895

Reich, N H; Turkenburg, W C ^[1]; Sinke, W C ^[1]

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1. Dept. of Science, Technology and Society, Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS, Utrecht (Netherlands)

In this paper, we show that photovoltaic (PV) energy yields can be simulated using standard rendering and ray-tracing features of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. To this end, three-dimensional (3-D) sceneries are ray-traced in CAD. The PV power output is then modeled by translating irradiance intensity data of rendered images back into numerical data. To ensure accurate results, the solar irradiation data used as input is compared to numerical data obtained from rendered images, showing excellent agreement. As expected, also ray-tracing precision in the CAD software proves to be very high. To demonstrate PV energy yield simulations using this innovative concept, solar radiation time course data of a few days was modeled in 3-D to simulate distributions of irradiance incident on flat, single- and double-bend shapes and a PV powered computer mouse located on a window sill. Comparisons of measured to simulated PV output of the mouse show that also in practice, simulation accuracies can be very high. Theoretically, this concept has great potential, as it can be adapted to suit a wide range of solar energy applications, such as sun-tracking and concentrator systems, Building Integrated PV (BIPV) or Product Integrated PV (PIPV). However, graphical user interfaces of 'CAD-PV' software tools are not yet available. (author)

• OSTI ID: 21337895
• Journal Information: Solar Energy, Vol. 84, Issue 8; Other Information: Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved; ISSN 0038-092X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT
COMPUTER CODES
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
RADIANT FLUX DENSITY
ENERGY YIELD
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
SOLAR RADIATION
IRRADIATION
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
ACCURACY
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
INDOORS
BUILDINGS
DISTRIBUTION
PERFORMANCE
SHAPE
SOLAR TRACKING SYSTEMS
SOLAR ARCHITECTURE
Ray-tracing