Terrestrial solar spectral modeling tools and applications for photovoltaic devices

Author

Myers, D.R. ; Emery, K. ; Gueymard, C.

Author_Institution

Nat. Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

19-24 May 2002

Firstpage

1683

Lastpage

1686

Abstract

Variations in terrestrial spectral irradiance on photovoltaic devices can be an important consideration in photovoltaic device design and performance. This paper describes three available atmospheric transmission models, MODTRAN, SMARTS2, and SPCTRAL2. We describe the basics of their operation and performance, and applications in the photovoltaic community. Examples of model input and output data and comparisons between the model results for each under similar conditions are presented. The SMARTS2 model is shown to be much easier to use, as accurate as the complex MODTRAN model, and more accurate than the historical NREL SPCTRAL2 model.

Keywords

atmospheric spectra; geophysics computing; solar cell arrays; sunlight; MODTRAN; SMARTS2; SPCTRAL2; atmospheric transmission models; model input data; model output data; photovoltaic device design; photovoltaic devices; terrestrial solar spectral modeling tools; Absorption; Aerosols; Atmospheric modeling; Atmospheric waves; Clouds; Laboratories; Photovoltaic systems; Solar power generation; Solar radiation; Terrestrial atmosphere;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2002. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE

ISSN

1060-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7471-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2002.1190943

Filename

1190943