A Computational Comparative Analysis of Solar Panel Performance under Outdoor and Indoor Environment

Abstract

The peculiar problem of unstable power supply in developing countries was a motivating factor for this research work. The problem of power supply is being resolved by renewable energy such as tidal, solar PV-based renewable energy, geothermal and solar renewable energy. The performance of three basic solar panel types kept in an indoor environment with an artificial light source and reflector was compared with the performance under outdoor environment. These solar PV types includes monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and silicon-amorphous which   selected as a sample for the thin-film type of solar panel. Laboratory experiments were set up for these tests.  PWM (pulse width modulation) concept of controlling AC was employed to achieve control for the enclosed indoor experiment. This was used to vary the intensity of the light bulbs placed inside the chamber built for the enclosed indoor environment. Reflectors were placed on the walls of the chamber to achieve better illumination within the chamber:  thereby leading to better output efficiency from the panels being tested. From the obtained results, monocrystalline solar panel gave 25.45V, polycrystalline produced  26.68V  and  Silicon-amorphous  gave  25.49V  for  the  indoor experiment  when  the  highest  obtainable  PWM  voltage  was  250V.  The results obtained for the outdoor readings fluctuate because of the factors militating against PVs. The highest readings obtained for the panels were: 25.78V, 24.56V and 24.08V for monocrystalline, polycrystalline and silicon-amorphous respectively. From these obtained results, the deduction made was that monocrystalline PV has the highest output efficiency under outdoor environment while the polycrystalline PV has the highest efficiency under indoor environment. This paper worked on the comparative analysis of the results obtained for both indoor and outdoor environments