Low Power Light Intensity Measurement based on Solar Energy

Abstract

Solar energy is wide resource compare to others and it can be easily transformed in electrical energy by solar panel. And solar panel needs to be characterized. Because solar panel characterization is represents behavior, efficiency and quality of the solar panel. This three terms very important in solar panel based application. So, solar panel should be characterized. And solar panel characterization is dependent on the Light intensity parameter. In the era of solar panel characterization, Light intensity is directly affected to solar panel characterization. So, Light intensity is one of the necessary parameter needs to be measured. And also light intensity measurement is required in other applications. Such as: solar energy harvesting, exposure control in digital camera, machine vision and automotive instrumentation cluster, security lighting etc. And light intensity measurement can be possible with light intensity sensor. So, the title describes low power light intensity measurement is based on solar energy; solar energy can be used as power resource. Solar energy will be used as it is wide energy resource compare to others. So my aim is to harvest solar energy. Solar energy harvesting is possible with help of power management unit and solar panel. Power management unit regulate and manage energy. So the aim is to not only to regulate power but also managing usage of power. In the system harvesting board regulates power supply to the microcontroller and directs the excess power to the energy backup system. So battery used as back up. And we are using energy harvesting IC as energy harvester. This IC regulates voltage of solar panel with high efficiency. We are using PIC microcontroller. So this microcontroller measures light intensity by "Light intensity sensor" when require. When Light intensity measurement is required then microcontroller will interact with sensor and sensor will consume power from power management unit and measure light intensity. Otherwise whole system will be in sleep mode. i.e. For low power consumption by system. Such type of system will helpful to solar panel characterization and in the solar plant with less power consumption. In today situation energy sources are limited. So, solar energy must be adopted by the industry. Low power Light intensity measurement techniques will save lots of energy compare to conventional methods.