Solar Collector Design and Analysis using TracePro®

Solar energy has reached the point of mass acceptance by consumers worldwide as a means
for producing energy and hot water at a competitive cost per watt and low carbon footprint. Solar cells, solar farms, and solar collectors convert solar radiation into electrical power with efficiency of more than 40% in mass-produced devices. The advances in materials, chemistry, and construction are among the many reasons for the increase in efficiency, but there are more gains to be had by using new optical devices. TracePro’s Solar Emulator and simulation and optimization capabilities have helped manufacturers achieve even greater efficiency by using optimized collector optics, thus dropping the cost per watt.

The first step for simulating a solar collector system is setting the position of the solar device on the world map. TracePro’s Solar Emulator provides a set
of predefined city locations, as well as Google Maps positioning as shown in Figure 1. The next step
in the solar simulation process is to establish
the direct and indirect sun models to be used
as sources for the simulation. TracePro provides built-in direct models and both the Igawa and the Darula and Kittler indirect sun contribution models. It also the capability to define turbidity conditions to calculate changing atmospheric conditions over time using user-defined time periods with sun tracking capability. This feature set makes TracePro an extremely valuable tool for any engineer calculating solar contribution.

TracePro’s Solar Emulator is the industry’s only tool for analyzing 3D designs and simulating performance-based, standardized definitions for geographical location (latitude, longitude, and elevation), period of sun travel with multi-axial tracking, and irradiance for both direct and indirect sun contribution. Analysis output includes irradiance, candela maps, turbidity calculations, total flux, and efficiency on the target over time.