Organic photovoltaic (OPV) is an exciting energy harvesting technique. Although its power conversion efficiency (PCE) now exceeds 10% in a research laboratory, the processing window of an OPV cell is still narrow. A fundamental understanding of the OPV materials is desired. This thesis presents the charge carrier transport properties and electronic interactions in the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) active layer of OPV cells. They were found to be well correlated with OPV device performances. Space-charge-limited current (SCLC) measurements and admittance spectroscopy (AS) were employed to study the charge transports, while photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS) was used to probe the trap densities inside the materials. Beneficial effects of a common solvent additive, 1,8-diiodooctance (DIO), on PTB7:PC71BM OPV cells have been investigated. With DIO present in the casting solution, the resulting BHJ films have much enhanced electron mobilities, whereas the impact on the hole mobility is negligible. The origin of increased electron mobility is the reduced average electron hopping distance for those films prepared with DIO solvent additive. A balance of hole-electron mobility by tuning the DIO concentration was demonstrated to be the way to optimize the OPV device performance. In light of carrier transport measurement results, a "polymer-rich" strategy with preserved device performance was demonstrated. After understanding the importance of balanced hole-electron mobility, the impact of donor-acceptor weight ratio on the performance of PTB7 : PC71BM based OPV cells was explored. Early stage electronic donor-acceptor interactions were revealed using ultra-low dosages of fullerenes. Before electron transport pathways percolate, the unconnected fullerene domains act as traps and hinder electron transport. From PDS, the trap density observed inside BHJ films was found to be anti-correlated with the fill factor of OPV devices. The origin of low FFs is mainly due to electron traps and localized states from fullerenes. Based on the observations, it is proposed that PC71BM tends to intercalate with PTB7 backbone instead of forming self-aggregates before the electron pathway percolation. Apart from investigating the fundamentals in OPV devices, a solution to improve its processing window was proposed in this thesis. Thermally stable polymer : fullerene OPV cells were fabricated by employing fluorenone-based solid additives. A charge transfer interaction between the additives and donor moiety of polymer formed a locked network which freezes the BHJ morphology under thermal stress. The most promising result retains 90% of the origin efficiency, upon thermal aging at 100 °C for more than 20 hours in PTB7:PC71BM solar cells. Besides fullerene-based OPV, all-polymer photovoltaic solar cells (all-PSCs) were also investigated. Two new difluorobenzene-naphthalene diimide based polymer electron acceptors, one random (P1) and one regioregular (P2) structure, were compared. P2 exhibited a much better molecular packing, a higher electron mobility and more balanced hole-electron mobilities in its composite film with polymer donor, PTB7-Th. An optimized PTB7-Th:P2 device can achieve a respectably high PCE over 5% for all-PSC devices. These all-PSCs should open a new avenue for next generation OPVs.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-13T14:51:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-05-05Bitstream added on 2014-08-13T17:59:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000776616.pdf: 4325824 bytes, checksum: 557feea50cbc02fd024a9a6c5abda8d8 (MD5) / Para avaliar o desempenho dos sistemas de microgeração é necessário coletar dados de produção e consumo de energia. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido um sistema para monitoramento da produção e consumo de energia em centrais de microgeração fotovoltaicas. Os experimentos foram realizados na central de microgeração distribuída fotovoltaica (MGD-PV) do Sítio Modelo da Fazenda Lageado e no Laboratório de Energias Renováveis do Departamento de Engenharia Rural, na Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas da UNESP, campus de Botucatu. O sistema utiliza dispositivos baseados em hardware livre para o gerenciamento e transmissão dos dados (Arduinos) e sensores de tensão e corrente para coleta de dados na central MGD-PV. A transmissão é feita via rede sem fios (ZigBee) para uma central de dados onde um microcomputador executa programas que foram desenvolvidos para o projeto e gerenciam o armazenamento local e envio dos dados para a Internet. Para monitorar o funcionamento e acessar os dados foi criada uma página na Internet. O download dos dados pode ser feito em formato CSV – Comma-Separated Values, amplamente utilizado e que permite a importação para diversas ferramentas de software. A eficiência do sistema foi de 96% na quantidade de dados registrados. / To evaluate the performance of microgeneration systems is necessary to collect data about production and consumption of energy. In this work, a system was developed for monitoring the production and consumption of energy in micro generation photovoltaic station. The experiments were performed in the central distributed micro generation photovoltaic - MGD-PV in Sítio Modelo in Campus Lageado and Renewable Energy Laboratory, Department of Rural Engineering in College of Agronomic Science (FCA) UNESP / Botucatu. To data collect the system uses voltage and current sensors and devices based on free hardware for managing and transmitting data (Arduinos). Data are transmitted via wireless (ZigBee) to a central database where one computer runs programs developed to store, manage and transmit the data to the Internet. To monitor the operation and access the data was created a page on the Internet. The downloaded data can be done in CSV - Comma-Separated Values, widely used and allows the import for several software tools. The system efficiency was 96% in the amount of recorded data.

Thesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Until recently, the focus of most solar technology development for space was towards more efficient, more radiation-resistant and increasingly powerful arrays. During a space mission, solar cells are not only exposed to irradiation by electrons, but also to a range of other particles, like protons. Thus, solar cells on robust nanosatellites are extremely exposed to an environment, which includes the high-energy electrons and protons of the earth’s radiation belts, which leads towards the degradation process of the individual solar cell. Solar cell radiation shielding design ensures the protection of the solar cells from the particular radiation environment found in space. While the design principles of a solar photovoltaic automatic switching fault tolerant system which can detect and bypass faulty photovoltaic cells will be presented through this research work. The ability of such a system to be reconfigured using implemented switching matrix system makes it efficient under various environments and faulty conditions. / National Research Foundation (NRF)

Orientador: Odivaldo José Seraphim / Banca: Fábio Renan Durand / Banca: José Fernando Presenço / Banca: Alexandre Dal Pai / Banca: Fernando de Lima Caneppele / Resumo: Para avaliar o desempenho dos sistemas de microgeração é necessário coletar dados de produção e consumo de energia. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido um sistema para monitoramento da produção e consumo de energia em centrais de microgeração fotovoltaicas. Os experimentos foram realizados na central de microgeração distribuída fotovoltaica (MGD-PV) do Sítio Modelo da Fazenda Lageado e no Laboratório de Energias Renováveis do Departamento de Engenharia Rural, na Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas da UNESP, campus de Botucatu. O sistema utiliza dispositivos baseados em hardware livre para o gerenciamento e transmissão dos dados (Arduinos) e sensores de tensão e corrente para coleta de dados na central MGD-PV. A transmissão é feita via rede sem fios (ZigBee) para uma central de dados onde um microcomputador executa programas que foram desenvolvidos para o projeto e gerenciam o armazenamento local e envio dos dados para a Internet. Para monitorar o funcionamento e acessar os dados foi criada uma página na Internet. O download dos dados pode ser feito em formato CSV - Comma-Separated Values, amplamente utilizado e que permite a importação para diversas ferramentas de software. A eficiência do sistema foi de 96% na quantidade de dados registrados. / Abstract: To evaluate the performance of microgeneration systems is necessary to collect data about production and consumption of energy. In this work, a system was developed for monitoring the production and consumption of energy in micro generation photovoltaic station. The experiments were performed in the central distributed micro generation photovoltaic - MGD-PV in Sítio Modelo in Campus Lageado and Renewable Energy Laboratory, Department of Rural Engineering in College of Agronomic Science (FCA) UNESP / Botucatu. To data collect the system uses voltage and current sensors and devices based on free hardware for managing and transmitting data (Arduinos). Data are transmitted via wireless (ZigBee) to a central database where one computer runs programs developed to store, manage and transmit the data to the Internet. To monitor the operation and access the data was created a page on the Internet. The downloaded data can be done in CSV - Comma-Separated Values, widely used and allows the import for several software tools. The system efficiency was 96% in the amount of recorded data. / Doutor

Orientador: Ennio Peres da Silva / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T13:25:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Strangueto_KarinaMaretti_M.pdf: 19906367 bytes, checksum: cfc584b8248827cae84c86e393a1870f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Desde a Revolução Industrial, as atividades desenvolvidas pelo homem têm provocado um crescimento maciço das emissões de gases de efeito estufa e poluentes para a atmosfera da Terra, devido, entre outros fatores, à constante e crescente necessidade de energia. Um grande esforço vem sendo realizado nas últimas décadas para a redução dessas emissões, com especial atenção ao setor de transporte, principalmente pelos efeitos provocados nas populações das grandes cidades devido à concentração de veículos em espaços reduzidos. Neste caso, busca-se aumentar: a eficiência dos veículos convencionais, o uso de biocombustíveis e de veículos híbridos, e, mais recentemente, o uso de veículos elétricos (VEs). Com o avanço da utilização de veículos elétricos como meio de transporte "limpo", são necessários maiores estudos para avaliar a quantidade de energia necessária para o abastecimento das frotas destes veículos e, também, uma análise da quantidade evitada de emissões de gases de efeito estufa (gás carbônico) comparativamente aos modelos à combustão interna. Assim, esse trabalho teve como objetivo desenvolver esses temas. A geração de energia através painéis fotovoltaicos foi a escolha para essa dissertação, onde foi realizado um estudo de caso para uma usina de 1 MWP, determinando a quantidade de energia efetivamente produzida, considerando a usina localizada em Campinas, São Paulo. Dessa forma, pôde-se estimar que a frota de veículos que poderia ser abastecida com a energia gerada por essa usina teria um valor entre 955 e 1.118 veículos, dependendo de diferentes logísticas de abastecimento consideradas. Com a frota estimada, também foi possível calcular que emissões de até 2.004 toneladas anuais de CO2 poderiam ser evitadas pela substituição dos veículos convencionais pelos por esta frota de VEs / Abstract: Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have been causing a massive growth in greenhouse gases and pollutants emissions to the Earth's atmosphere, due to, between other factors, the continuing and growing need for energy. A great effort has been made in recent decades to reduce these emissions, with special attention to the transport sector, mainly caused by the effects on populations of large cities due to the concentration of vehicles in confined spaces. In this case, seeks to improve: the efficiency of conventional vehicles, the use of biofuels and hybrid vehicles, and, more recently, the use of electric vehicles (EVs). With advancing of Electric Vehicle use as a means of "green" transport, more studies are needed to assess the amount of energy required to supply fleets of this kind of vehicles and, also, an analysis of the amount of avoided emissions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) compared with internal combustion models. Thus, this study aimed to develop these themes. The generation of energy through photovoltaic panels was the choice for this dissertation, which was conducted a case study for a generating station of 1 MWP, determining the amount of energy effectively produced, considering the generating station located in Campinas, Sao Paulo. Thus, it was estimated that the fleet of vehicles that could be supplied with energy generated by this plant would have a value between 955 and 1.118 vehicles, depending on different logistical supply considered. With the fleet estimated, it was also possible to calculate that 2.004 tons of CO2 could be avoided by the replacement of conventional vehicles by EVs / Mestrado / Engenharia Mecanica / Mestre em Planejamento de Sistemas Energéticos

No description available.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the performance of grid integrated PV systems. A data acquisition (DAQ) system was developed to monitor the performance of an existing grid integrated PV system with battery storage. This system is referred to as a grid assisted PV system. A data logger was used together with the inverters built in data logger to monitor environmental and electrical data on a grid tie PV system which was deployed during this study. To investigate the performance of these grid integrated PV systems PV and BOS device characterization was performed. This was achieved by using current voltage curve tracers and the DAQ system developed. Energy yield estimations were calculated referring to the literature review and a meteorological reference for comparison with measured energy yields from the grid tie PV system.

In order to investigate the influence of parasitic resistances, saturation current and diode ideality factor on the performance of photovoltaic devices, parameter extraction routines employing the standard iteration (SI) method and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method were developed to extract the series resistance, shunt resistance, saturation current and ideality factor from the I-V characteristics of solar cells and PV modules. The well-known one- and two-diode models were used to describe the behavior of the I-V curve and the parameters of the models were determined by approximation and iteration techniques. The SI and the PSO extraction programmes were used to assess the suitability of the one- and the two-diode solar cell models in describing the I-V characteristics of mono- and multicrystalline silicon solar cells, CISS- and CIGSS-based solar cells. This exercise revealed that the two-diode model provides more information regarding the different processes involved in solar cell operation. Between the two methods developed, the PSO method is faster, yielded fitted curves with lower standard deviation of residuals and, therefore, was the preferred extraction method. The PSO method was then used to extract the device parameters of CISS-based solar cells with the CISS layer selenized under different selenization process conditions and CIGSS-based solar cells with varying i-ZnO layer thickness. For the CISS-based solar cells, the detrimental effect of parasitic resistances on device performance increased when the temperature and duration of the selenization process was increased. For the CIGSS-based devices, photogeneration improved with increasing i-ZnO layer thickness. At high forward bias, bulk recombination and/or tunneling-assisted recombination were the dominant processes affecting the I-V characteristics of the devices. v Lastly, device and performance parameters of mono-, multicrystalline silicon and CIS modules derived from I-V characteristics obtained under dark and illuminated conditions were analyzed considering the effects of temperature on the performance of the devices. Results showed that the effects of parasitic resistances are greater under illumination and, under outdoor conditions, the values further declined due to increasing temperature. The saturation current and ideality factor also increased under outdoor conditions which suggest increased recombination and, coupled with the adverse effects of parasitic resistances, these factors result in lower FF and lower maximum power point. Analysis performed on crystalline silicon and thin film devices utilized in this study revealed that parameter extraction from I-V characteristics of photovoltaic devices and, in particular, the implementation of PSO in solar cell device parameter extraction developed in this work is a useful characterization technique.

The objective of this study is to characterize and analyse defects in solar cell devices. Materials used to fabricate solar cells are not defects free and therefore, there is a need to investigate defects in cells. To investigate this, a topographical technique was developed and employed which uses a non-destructive methodology to analyse solar cells. A system was built which uses a technique based on a laser beam induced current (LBIC). LBIC technique involves focusing light on to a surface of a solar cell device in order to create a photo-generated current that can be measured in the external circuit for analyses. The advantage of this technique is that it allows parameter extraction. Parameters that can be extracted include short-circuit current, carrier lifetime and also the external and internal quantum efficiency of a solar cell. In this thesis, LBIC measurements in the form of picture maps are used to indicate the distribution of the localized beam induced current within solar cells. Areas with low minority carrier lifetime in solar cells are made visible by LBIC mapping. Surface reflection intensity measurements of cells can also be mapped using the LBIC system developed in this study. The system is also capable of mapping photo-generated current of a cell below and above room temperature. This thesis also presents an assessment procedure capable of assessing the device and performance parameters with reference to I-V measurements. The dark and illuminated I-V characteristics of solar cells were investigated. The illuminated I-V characteristics of solar cells were obtained using a defocused laser beam. Dark I-V measurements were performed by applying voltage across the cell in the dark and measuring a current through it. The device parameters which describe the behaviour of I-V characteristic were extracted from the I-V data using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method based on a one-and two-diode solar cell models. Solar cells of different technologies were analysed, namely, single-crystalline (c-Si) and multicrystalline (mc-Si) silicon, Edge-defined Film-fed Growth Si (EFG-Si) and Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 (CIGSS) thin film based cells. The LBIC results illustrated the effect of surface reflection features and material defects in the solar cell investigated. IQE at a wavelength of 660 nm were measured on these cells and the results in general emphasised the importance of correcting optical losses, i.e. reflection loss, when characterizing different types of defects. The agreement between the IQE measurements and I-V characteristics of a cell showed that the differences in crystal grains influence the performance of a mc-Si cell. The temperature-dependence of I-V characteristics of a CIGSS solar cell was investigated. The results showed that, for this material, the photo response is reduced at elevated temperatures. In addition to LBIC using a laser beam, solar spectral radiation was employed to obtained device performance parameters. The results emphasised the effect of grain boundaries as a recombination centres for photo-generated hole-pairs. Lastly, mesa diode characterizations of solar cells were investigated. Mesa diodes are achieved by etching down a solar cell so that the plateau regions are formed. Mesa diodes expose the p-n junction, and therefore mesa diode analysis provides a better way of determining and revealing the fundamental current conduction mechanism at the junction. Mesa diodes avoid possible edge effects. This study showed that mesa diodes can be used to characterize spatial non-uniformities in solar cells. The results obtained in this study indicate that LBIC is a useful tool for defect characterization in solar cells. Also LBIC complements other characterization techniques such as I-V characterization.

In order to become a viable alternative to silicon photovoltaics, dye-sensitized solar cells must overcome several issues primarily resulting from their use of a liquid electrolyte. Much research has gone into correcting these shortcomings by replacing the liquid electrolyte with solid-state hole-transport media. Using these solid-state materials brings new difficulties, such as completely filling the pores in the TiO₂nanostructure, and achieving good adhesion with the dye-coated TiO₂. A novel approach to addressing these difficulties is the inverse dye-sensitized solar cell design. In this method the devices are constructed in reverse order, with the solid-state hole-transport medium providing the nanostructure instead of the TiO₂. This allows new materials and methods to be used which may better address these issues. In this project, inverse dye-sensitized solar cells using polyaniline nanofibers as the hole transport medium were prepared and characterized. The devices were prepared on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass electrodes. The first component was a dense spin-coated polyaniline blocking layer, to help prevent short circuiting of the devices. The second layer was a thin film of drop cast polyaniline nanofibers which acted as the hole transport medium and provided high surface area for the dye attachment. The dye used was 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP), which was covalently attached to the nanofibers using a Friedel-Crafts acylation. Titania gel was then deposited into the pores of the nanofiber film by controlled hydrolysis of a titanium complex (Tyzor LA). A back electrode of TiO₂nanoparticles sintered on FTO was pressed on top to complete the devices. A typical device generated an open circuit voltage of 0.17 V and a closed circuit current of 5.7 nA/cm² while the highest open circuit voltage recorded for any variation on a device was 0.31 V and the highest short circuit current was 52 nA/cm² under AM 1.5 simulated olar spectrum at 100 mW/cm². Initially prepared devices did not generate a measureable photocurrent due to two materials flaws. The first was traced to the poorly developed conduction band of the titania gel, as deposited from Tyzor LA hydrolysis, resulting in poor electron conduction. This prevented the titania gel from efficiently functioning as the electron transport medium. A remedy was found in adding a layer of sintered anatase TiO₂nanoparticles on the back electrode to serve as the electron transport medium. However, this remedy does not address the issue of the inability of titania gel to efficiently transport electrons photogenerated deep in the nanofiber film to the back electrode. The second flaw was found to originate from fast recombination kinetics between electrons in TiO₂and holes in polyaniline. However, a positive feature was that the titania gel intended to be used as the electron transport medium was found to sufficiently insulate the interface such that the recombination rate slowed enough to allow generation of a measureable photocurrent. Electronic insulation was further enhanced by co-attaching decanoic acid onto the polyaniline nanofibers to fill in pinholes between the dye molecules. While these solutions were not ideal, they were intended to be diagnostic in nature and supplied critical information about the weak links in the device design, thus pointing the way toward improving device performance. Significant enhancements can be expected by addressing these issues in further detail.