A Development of a Low Cost Solar Irradiance Meter Using Mini Solar Cells

A pyranometer is the most used instruments for measuring solar irradiance, but it is expensive. This paper deals with the development of a low-cost solar irradiance meter using three mini solar cells connected in parallel. The solar irradiance is estimated using an algebraic formula that is a function of the short circuit current of the solar cells. The developed instrument has three mini solar cells, a microcontroller, a simple circuit, and memory for data storage. Several experiments have been conducted to perform the effectiveness of the proposed system. The results are validated and compared with that of traditional device. It is demonstrated that the estimated global irradiance converges asymptotically.