Perovskite PV Energy Harvesting System for Uninterrupted IoT Device Applications

Abstract

The performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has been improved throughout the years. These photovoltaic (PV) cells can be used to power Internet of Things (IoT) devices for indoor applications. A perovskite PV energy harvesting system with a stand-by battery that continuously powers an IoT device is developed in this work. The battery is required to complement the PSCs when the latter have difficulties in power delivery during low or no irradiance. The performance of the energy harvesting circuit as well as the battery charge and discharge scenarios are investigated. Voltage matching between the PSC and the battery is achieved by a boost converter. The PSC energy harvesting system uses fractional open-circuit voltage (FOCV) based maximum power point tracking (MPPT), which utilizes a Sample and Hold (S&H) circuit. The FOCV technique is based on a comparison of the perovskite PV open circuit voltages and the maximum power points. For each irradiance level, the maximum power point is unique, and this work uses a light-dependent resistor (LDR) to adjust the scaling constant in MPPT. Case studies include various scenarios under 1000 lux fluorescent light and 1 sun irradiance as well as a consideration of different battery states.