Sun Simulator for Indoor Performance assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Cells

This paper presents systematic design procedure and features of a sun simulator developed for testing low concentrating linearly focusing solar photovoltaic concentrators. The designed solar simulator comprises of a xenon short arc lamp and paraboloidal reflector for uniform radiative flux distribution on focal plane at desired radiation intensity. Initial inputs to the design process include reflector geometry (shape and size), surface properties of the reflector surface (reflectivity), distance of the reflector aperture from the illuminated area, rated lamp power, lamp geometry and orientation. These specifications were inputted in a ray tracing analyzer using COMSOL Multiphysics. The angular distribution of radiative intensity from the lamp was also accounted for. The proposed design is able to deliver a radiative intensity of 500 W/m² to test photovoltaic concentrators with aperture of up to 140 mm x 50 mm with a spatial non-uniformity of 4.5%.