Design of a LED-based solar simulator for energy harvesting applications

In this paper, design considerations for a low cost, site-specific solar simulator with only white LED emitters as light source are presented, harnessing the low dependence of crystalline solar cells on spectral distribution, which allows a low complexity design. Although several solar-based energy harvesting systems have been reported on different publications, the evaluation of their performance has been accomplished under different outdoor conditions that largely affect the results, making difficult to reproduce results, achieve an objective comparison and predict minimum conditions for reliable operation under different operation scenarios. As an alternative for controlled indoor testing, the use of solar simulators is proposed; nevertheless, typical commercial solar simulators are costly, complex and mainly designed for testing photovoltaic devices under simulated and ideal clear-sky standards, such as AM 1.5G, which differs from real-life outdoor conditions, since solar irradiance is highly dependent on weather conditions and geographical location: The proposed design is aimed for testing devices under controlled and close to real conditions.