Energy Output from a Solar Panel

by Disha Saha

Submitted : Spring 2011

This project requried to determine the energy produced by the solar module over a course of one day from the hours of 6 to 12 corresponding to sunrise and noon. The current-voltage relationship for the particular photovoltaic solar module was given, and Ipv was given, where Io and b was given to be constants. Here the photovoltaic current Ipv is dependent on the amount of solar radian, which means that it is actually dependent on the time of day. Therefore, when solving for the total energy for this particular solar module, it was necessary to take into account how the varying energy levels that can be generated based on the varying times could actually affect the voltage and current in the module. However, since the voltage in this problem was not given, it was necessary to use the relationship of V=IR. Also, the current was unknown, as a result, it was necessary to use excel in order to solve for current for the varying times using the Goal seek option. After that, plots of voltage, current, and power was generated. Due to the fact, there wasn't an explicit power function given to integrate to find energy, it was necessary to use the values of power from the tables generated by excel and implementing those values in the trapezoid integration rule to get the total power. Since the value obtained from the trapezoid integration rule had the units W*h, it was necessary to multiply that value by 3600 seconds, to get the total energy, which equaled to 902543.5J.

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