Automated test chamber for indoor photovoltaics

The widespread adoption of photovoltaics (PV) as a renewable energy source for autonomous electronic applications is hindered by the absence of comprehensive performance data for small scale cells. The large variety of different cell technologies, and the difference in power output between natural sunlight and artificial light sources further complicate the design process of such applications. This leads to applications being designed with overdimensioned cells and/or of inappropriate cell types, and all the drawbacks associated with them. In this paper, we present a solution to this problem by introducing a novel technique to analyze cell performance quickly, and compare the performance of different cells graphically to streamline the selection procedure. The proposed solution consists of a test chamber specifically designed to test PV cell performance under artificial light sources, at typical indoor ambient light levels.