Characterization of solar panels for powering sensor applications

Abstract

Devices installed in remote places require continuously energy supply for their functionality or communication requirements. For these applications, conventional energy supply is very expensive, or unreliable, and batteries dependence is not a good solution for long-term installations. Energy harvesting can be a good solution, to increase the availability of energy. Regenerative energy sources like thermoelectric, magnetic, piezoelectric, and/or renewable sources such as photovoltaic, wind, among others, allowed the development of different powering solutions for sensor units. The purpose of this work is to characterize three photovoltaic solar panels for different power consumption sensor applications. The study is carried out taking into account the intensity of light and angle of incidence over the photovoltaic panels versus voltage generated. The energy is stored in an association of supercapacitors. This association together with the solar panel itself forms the two possible sources to supply the sensor application.