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DOE OSTI2021

Impacts of common faults on an air conditioner with a microtube condenser and analysis of fault characteristic features

Split system air conditioners are widely used to cool residential buildings, because of their low cost and simplicity. However, their efficiency is impacted by installation faults, which include: improper refrigerant charge (undercharge or overcharge), improper evaporator airflow, liquid line restrictions (LL), and the presence of non-condensable gas (NC) in the refrigerant. No known previously published research has studied the effect of these four faults on a system equipped with a microtube condenser, which has smaller tube size than a traditional condenser and therefore holds less refrigerant charge, but has a different configuration than a microchannel. Furthermore, very few have studied the impacts of LL and NC. Herein this paper describes laboratory fault tests of a microtube-equipped system, compares the fault impacts with those of a traditional system, and considers the characteristic fault features. The tested system uses R-410A refrigerant and has a scroll compressor, a fixed orifice expansion device, and two fin-tube heat exchangers. The tests were carried out under steady operation with a range of fault intensities and operating conditions. The microtube system’s performance degradation from faults is similar to systems with traditional heat exchangers, despite the reduced capacity to hold refrigerant charge.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2023

Evaluation of the economic implications of varied pressure drawdown strategies generated using a real-time, rapid predictive, multi-fidelity model for unconventional oil and gas wells

Experience has suggested that pressure maintenance in hydraulically fractured reservoirs via lower, more sustained production drawdowns may offer improved cumulative recovery and overall resource extraction efficiency compared to more rapid drawdown approaches aimed at generating high initial production. However, given the inherent variability of oil and natural gas markets, operators pursue production strategies that maximize profitability over resource extraction efficiency. This study focuses on evaluating the implications of contrasting pressure drawdown strategies on the long-term production and resulting economics for a real, producing unconventional gas well in the Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian Basin using a techno-economic analysis approach. Our research combines elements of well-specific horizontal well design, production forecasting, equipment sizing and capital cost estimation, operating cost estimation, and revenue and tax calculations. Gas production forecast outlook scenarios were generated under varying pressure drawdowns using two approaches: 1) a novel physics-informed machine learning workflow and 2) traditional reservoir simulation. A discounted cash flow model was used to evaluate the resulting economic implications for each drawdown scenario—generating output for exploring the coupled effect of factors like the timing and volume of gas production, prevailing economic and market conditions for natural gas, and overall estimated ultimate recovery on profitability metrics such as internal rate of return and net present value. Results show that there is potential to maximize the cumulative gas produced in the specific case study well by employing a lower pressure drawdown. Conversely, the greatest profitability is achieved using rapid drawdown as signified by a small, specific subset of our outlook scenarios. On an averaging basis, we find that the combinations of highest cumulative producing and most profitable scenarios occur under lower drawdowns with long (>40 years) producing timeframes, but require higher relative gas price and lower discounting considerations. Further, the machine learning predictive outlooking capability proved effective for enabling rapid generation of a multitude of scenario forecasts. As a result, a variety of prominent example cases could be generated to strike the balance of greater productivity and economic return given their associated producing features and economic conditions when compared to similar producing scenarios—critical insight that offers improved decision support for unconventional oil and gas operations.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2022

Developing an Undergraduate Research Laboratory for Experimental Physical Chemistry [Book Chapter]

Embarking on a faculty career in physical chemistry at a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) is exciting, but also overwhelming. Becoming both an effective teacher and a productive researcher requires a good plan, hard work and support from others who understand what it takes to be successful. The phrase, “building a laboratory,” calls to mind the physical construction of a research instrument, but beginning a career at a PUI involves much more than assembling equipment. Funding for the lab must be secured, students must be recruited and mentored, and the lab must be overseen to keep things running on a daily basis. While many of these tasks would also be part of starting a career at a doctoral level institution, there are many special considerations that must be taken into account when working with undergraduate students because their laboratory experience and chemical knowledge are still within those beautiful but nascent stages. Here, this unique aspect makes building a research program challenging, but also very rewarding. Exposing young minds to the wonders of physical chemistry and building personal relationships through the mentoring process can be immensely gratifying. This chapter is a compilation of holistic advice for building an experimental physical chemistry research laboratory for undergraduates, reflecting a typical experience found in the United States.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2022

Methods—Kintsugi Imaging of Battery Electrodes: Distinguishing Pores from the Carbon Binder Domain using Pt Deposition

The mesostructure of porous electrodes used in lithium-ion batteries strongly influences cell performance. Accurate imaging of the distribution of phases in these electrodes would allow this relationship to be better understood through simulation. However, imaging the nanoscale features in these components is challenging. While scanning electron microscopy is able to achieve the required resolution, it has well established difficulties imaging porous media. This is because the flat imaging planes prepared using focused ion beam milling will intersect with the pores, which makes the images hard to interpret as the inside walls of the pores are observed. It is common to infiltrate porous media with resin prior to imaging to help resolve this issue, but both the nanoscale porosity and the chemical similarity of the resins to the battery materials undermine the utility of this approach for most electrodes. In this study, a technique is demonstrated which uses in situ infiltration of platinum to fill the pores and thus enhance their contrast during imaging. Reminiscent of the Japanese art of repairing cracked ceramics with precious metals, this technique is referred to as the kintsugi method. The images resulting from applying this technique to a conventional porous cathode are presented and then segmented using a multi-channel convolutional method. We show that while some cracks in active material particles were empty, others appear to be filled (perhaps with the carbon binder phase), which will have implications for the rate performance of the cell. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used to validate the distribution of phases resulting from image analysis, which also suggested a graded distribution of the binder relative to the carbon additive. The equipment required to use the kintsugi method is commonly available in major research facilities and so we hope that this method will be rapidly adopted to improve the imaging of electrode materials and porous media in general.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2024

DualSPHysics-INL

Funded by the DOE's Bioenergy Technology Office through the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium, INL researchers developed this code to model biomass freestock flow in various handling equipment, such as hoppers and augers. Built on top of an existing open-source code DualSPHysics (https://dual.sphysics.org/) , the enrichment includes modification of the mass conservation equation that switching tracking density to void ratio, adding a hypoplastic constitutive law to better capture the flow physics of this type of material and implementing a novel boundary condition that can handle the dynamic contact between material and equipment. All implementation were realized via Nvidia CUDA, so GPU accelaration can be leveraged to signifiantly speed up the computational process.

Jin, Wencheng [Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Id↗

DOE OSTI2020

AWARE: The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) West Antarctic Radiation Experiment

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE) performed comprehensive meteorological and aerosol measurements and ground-based atmospheric remote sensing at two Antarctic stations using the most advanced instrumentation available. A suite of cloud research radars, lidars, spectral and broadband radiometers, aerosol chemical and microphysical sampling equipment, and meteorological instrumentation was deployed at McMurdo Station on Ross Island from December 2015 through December 2016. A smaller suite of radiometers and meteorological equipment, including radiosondes optimized for surface energy budget measurement, was deployed on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet between 4 December 2015 and 17 January 2016. AWARE provided Antarctic atmospheric data comparable to several well-instrumented high Arctic sites that have operated for many years and that reveal numerous contrasts with the Arctic in aerosol and cloud microphysical properties. These include persistent differences in liquid cloud occurrence, cloud height, and cloud thickness. Antarctic aerosol properties are also quite different from the Arctic in both seasonal cycle and composition, due to the continent’s isolation from lower latitudes by Southern Ocean storm tracks. Antarctic aerosol number and mass concentrations are not only non-negligible but perhaps play a more important role than previously recognized because of the higher sensitivities of clouds at the very low concentrations caused by the large-scale dynamical isolation. Antarctic aerosol chemical composition, particularly organic components, has implications for local cloud microphysics. The AWARE dataset, fully available online in the ARM Program data archive, offers numerous case studies for unique and rigorous evaluation of mixed-phase cloud parameterization in climate models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Cybersecurity for Digital Energy Infrastructure : Trends, Threats, and Cyber-Informed Engineering

This presentation discusses the rise in digital energy infrastructure and associated threats. It covers an in-depth risk assessment of digital energy equipment and provides real world examples of threats, vulnerabilities, and known incidents. Research conducted by INL assessing and addressing these risks follows, concluding with a dive into Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) and it's application to digital energy infrastructure, using battery energy storage systems (BESS) as an example.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2020

Development of Cable Aging Acceptance Criteria for Nuclear Facilities

The aging of nuclear power plant electrical cables has been the subject of substantial research and development (R&D) projects in the nuclear industry, national and international laboratories, universities, and vendor organizations for several years. More specifically, these R&D efforts were conducted to develop equipment and techniques for assessing age-related degradation of in-service cables in nuclear facilities including power plants, research reactors, waste facilities and fuel fabrication plants. In recent years, cable R&D efforts in the nuclear arena have also included work to develop new cables for the next generation of reactors. Over time, exposure to harsh environmental conditions such as elevated temperatures, radiation, and humidity in nuclear installations can result in age-related degradation and failure of cables. In the current fleet of nuclear reactors, there are thousands of miles of cabling installed in each plant and many of these cables are exposed to these harsh environmental conditions. For these cables, the jacket and insulation polymers harden and become brittle over time, making them more susceptible to crack formation and growth, moisture intrusion, and other mechanisms that can lead to cable failure. Moreover, the existing U.S. fleet of 98 nuclear reactors has an average operating age of 38 years. Many of these nuclear power plants have applied for and almost all have been granted regulatory approval for license renewals to operate for 60 years, 20 years beyond their original 40-year life. Further, subsequent license renewals (SLRs) are underway with a few commercial nuclear power sites already approved to operate up to 80 years. As these reactors pursue operating life extensions, utilities must find a way to address issues associated with age-related degradation of cables. Designers of small modular reactors are also in need of technologies to evaluate the performance of cables that will be installed in harsher environments (e.g. higher temperatures, radiation doses, dose rates, etc.) than those present in current-generation reactors. Today, a variety of cable condition monitoring (CM) techniques have been developed and successfully used in nuclear facilities. These techniques are used to identify age-related degradation and assess the condition of cables to determine if their performance characteristics have changed with age. However, objective criteria must be developed for these CM tests to help quantify cable condition and thereby develop repair and replacement schedules. With operating life extending to 80 years and more SLRs on the horizon, both nuclear facilities and regulators need an objective means to determine the aged condition of cables.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Development of Cable Aging Acceptance Criteria for Nuclear Facilities

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Observations and Lessons Learned From Installing Residential Roofing-Integrated Photovoltaics

Building-sited solar photovoltaics (PV) could play a key role in decarbonizing the building sector either through racked and mounted PV or through Building-integrated PV (BIPV). BIPV is installed into the building envelope itself, with solar cells and/or modules forming the outer layer of a building structure, thus transforming a single-purpose structure into one that serves the dual purposes of the building envelope and electricity. BIPV can be applied to building roofs, facades, awnings, pergolas, windows, skylights, balustrades, and other external surfaces. Given BIPV products vary widely, the focus of this research is residential roofing integrated PV (RIPV), where solar is incorporated into or otherwise replaces the roofing material. Previous research suggests that residential RIPV could reduce customer acquisition, labor, supply chain, and equipment costs. These products have yet to realize these cost savings and deployment remains significantly less than conventional rooftop PV as a relative share of the addressable market in the US. One potential barrier to broader residential roofing integrated PV deployment may be higher costs relative to conventional rooftop PV, primarily because the design and installation of these products is still evolving. Here, we explore residential RIPV cost-reduction opportunities by analyzing installation processes. Our study documents residential RIPV installations at 2 reroofing sites and the equivalent of 9 new construction sites in California through a methodology known as time and motion study. We also conducted interviews with subject-matter experts to identify barriers and solutions to maximize these products' market penetration. Our time and motion study breaks the RIPV installation process into four steps: 1) staging, unloading, and roof preparation; 2) fire resistant underlayment(s) (synthetic material laid between roof shingles and roof deck); 3) flashings and PV installation; and 4) wiring and monitoring. We measure the time required for each step in terms of worker-hours, representing an hour of labor from a single worker. We further normalize process time by dividing worker-hours by kilowatt (kW) of system capacity. The most time-intensive step was flashings and PV installation, taking around 2.4 worker-hours per kW on average and accounting for around 60% of the process time for an average installation. The total installation process took on average about 6.4 and 3.5 worker-hours per kW at the reroofing sites and new construction sites, respectively. For comparison, a previous time and motion study documented a time of 6.9 worker-hours per kW for conventional rooftop PV. The shorter RIPV installation times are consistent with previous studies suggesting that RIPV could be installed faster than conventional rooftop PV. The time and motion results and feedback from interviewees provide insights into potential residential RIPV cost reduction opportunities. Several interviewees suggested that these products would be more efficient if PV installation was more fully integrated into the roofing/construction industries, which currently use separate supply chains and skillsets. Further integration could reduce supply chain delays and labor force redundancies. Future research could explore specific ways to integrate these industries to help realize the cost savings potential of RIPV.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Direct Air Capture Using Trapped Small Amines in Hierarchical Nanoporous Capsules on Porous Electrospun Fibers (Final Technical Report)

This report summarizes the carbon capture research and development conducted by The State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) and GTI Energy (GTI) for award “DE-FE0031969: Direct Air Capture Using Trapped Small Amines in Hierarchical Nanoporous Capsules on Porous Electrospun Fibers” sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The objective of this project is to develop an innovative sorbent structure of trapped small amines in HNC embedded in PEF for DAC. This involves tailoring both sorbent and PEF materials to achieve a compact system for DAC with high capacity for CO 2 at concentrations typically available in air and at near ambient conditions. An innovative sorbent structure of trapped small amines in hierarchical nanoporous capsules (HNC) embedded in porous electrospun fibers (PEF) was developed for direct air capture (DAC). This involves tailoring both sorbent and PEF materials to achieve a compact system for DAC with high capacity for CO 2 at concentrations typically available in air and at near ambient conditions. An interfacial polymerization process was developed, which utilized loaded amines inside mesoporous silica and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) dissolved in organic solvents as the precursors, to generate a polyamide (PA) coating layer on mesoporous silica and thus trap amines. Reaction conditions, including TMC concentration, organic solvents, reaction time, etc., for interfacial polymerization were optimized to effectively trap loaded amines, and cyclic heating-cooling operation was conducted to evaluate the coating quality. Larger pore volume mesoporous silica was also synthesized to increase amine loading and thus increase CO 2 capacity. The optimized sorbent material exhibited CO 2 capacity as high as 4.88 mmol/g under humid DAC conditions and negligible loss (<1%) during 10 cyclic heating-cooling operations. The optimized PA-coated sorbent also showed fast adsorption and desorption kinetics, with <20% t1/2 increase compared to uncoated sorbent. PEF fabrication conditions, including organic solvents for dissolving core and shell polymers, voltage, distance from the nozzle to the collection panel, etc. were adjusted to better incorporate HNC. After incorporating the optimized sorbent material into PEF, the structured sorbent had a CO 2 capacity of approximately 4.0 mmol/g under humid DAC conditions, with capacity loss of 0.17% per cycle and t1/2 increase less than 10%. A techno-economic analysis (TEA) for the process design for a DAC system based on our developed sorbent structure of trapped small amines in HNC embedded in PEF was conducted. The process design included process description and major equipment sizing and energy and mass balances in addition to scale-up research results and estimated capture cost. Aspen Adsorption Simulator was used to fit the experimentally measured breakthrough curves and extract equilibrium and kinetic data of the optimized sorbent. Our results indicated that for a DAC plant with CO 2 productivity of 3,000 tonne/year, the levelized cost of CO 2 capture was $\$$612/tonne, with the largest contribution of 44.33% from the fixed operation cost. Increasing CO 2 productivity, while maintaining similar fixed operation cost, is expected to significantly reduce the CO 2 capture cost. A sensitivity study was also conducted to understand the influence of total plant cost, sorbent cost, CO 2 concentration in the feed, sorbent mat lifetime, sorbent regeneration electricity, and adsorption blower pressure drop on the levelized cost of CO 2 capture, revealing a capture cost range of $\$$520-870/tonne.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2026

Shining Light on Halide Perovskites: Teaching Analytical Chemistry Using Flexible, Inquiry-Based Experiments

Two-dimensional (2D) metal halide perovskites are promising next generation semiconducting materials at the forefront of research in solar cells, LEDs, and other devices. Here, we report on an undergraduate intermediate analytical chemistry laboratory experience where students were taught fundamental chemistry concepts, including solubility, complexation, spectroscopy, and microscopy, through the introduction and study of 2D halide perovskite materials. Students explore multiple facets of perovskite synthesis, structure, and properties through a modular set of experiments that students used to form a holistic picture of this material. Importantly, this inquiry-based lab supports students through a guided research process, and students report high interest and learning gains from an end of the semester survey. We further discuss ways to adapt this lab to course, student, equipment, and budget needs. Overall, this laboratory experience teaches and applies the fundamental concepts and tools of analytical chemistry to the contemporary materials research field.

Analytical Chemistry↗

DOE OSTI2020

Opinion: Lighting Research During and After the Pandemic

For many lighting researchers, the recent restrictions related to COVID-19 have paused most in-person laboratory or field experiments. In certain countries, regulatory institutions have allowed such experiments to resume but issued safety recommendations like pre-checking participants for disease symptoms and excluding those that are especially vulnerable. To avoid potential complications and delays, researchers are likely to resort to other research designs that enable remote research — eliminating the need for the experimenter and subjects to be in the same room. While unanticipated, this shift to remote research methods is an opportunity to revisit and further develop remote experimental techniques, which can have beneficial long-lasting implications on lighting research during and after the pandemic. Perhaps the most common type of remote research is online experiments; which can greatly benefit from improved techniques to allow for greater control or characterization of experimental conditions, like those proposed by Villa and Labayrade . These techniques require validation specific to the type of response collected and context, e.g. space type and attributes. New research techniques continue to emerge and will enable remote collection of objective measures such as gaze direction and high dynamic range images (HDRIs) without specialized equipment. In fact, many of these methods and techniques are commonly used in other disciplines, like vision science and psychology, and can be adapted for lighting research. Not all lighting studies can be conducted online, but in the age of ubiquitous and connected technologies, there is a largely missed opportunity to utilize crowdsourced responses to lighting conditions in real environments where people live and go about their daily lives without the research being limited to a certain time and laboratory locations. For instance, outdoor street luminaires can be rated by passersby using ecological momentary assessments on mobile phones. While this approach does not provide laboratory-level control over experimental conditions, it can provide more contextual responses resulting from ‘normal’ dynamic gaze, behavior, and interactions. Further, it can also reduce bias related to the experimental setting. Further development of remote research methods and their use in lighting research can improve the quality of lighting research. Given that sample sizes in most lighting research are relatively small, remote research can substantially increase sample sizes, reduce research costs, and shorten study duration, all while reducing interaction between experimenter and subjects. Another benefit is reaching a wider audience and including under-represented individuals who typically are not reachable using common recruitment methods. The pandemic has set back our plans for in-lab experiments, but can it inspire us to think of new and creative ways to expand lighting research?

Abboushi, Belal K.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Oak Ridge Spoofing and Interference Test Battery (OAKBAT) - Pure Tones

This dataset contains the pure 1.57542 GHz (L1) pure tone recordings provided to allow characterization of the recording equipment used to digitize the OAKBAT scenarios. The equipment includes the cable, two LNAs, and the software-defined radio. The files are binary data in the format described in the paper: Albright, A., Powers, S. Bonior, J., and Combs, F., A Tool for Furthering GNSS Security Research: The Oak Ridge Spoofing and Interference Test Battery (OAKBAT), in Proceedings of ION GNSS+ 2020, 2020. The metadata, equipment documentation and configuration files, collection procedures and more materials that allow the independent reproduction of the OAKBAT data are https://github.com/oakbat/. Additionally, this site includes a complete listing of all the RF data files, not just this series, available as part of OAKBAT.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2022

Bridging Equipment Reliability Data and Robust Decisions in a Plant Operation Context

In order to reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, nuclear power plants (NPPs) are moving from corrective and periodic maintenance to predictive maintenance strategies. Such transition requires changes on the data that needs to be retrieved and on the type of decision processes to be employed. Advanced monitoring and data analysis technologies are essential to support predictive strategies. They can in fact provide precise information about health of a component, track its degradation trends, and provide information of its expected failure time. With such information, maintenance operations for a component can be performed right before its expected failure time. This dynamic context of O&M operations requires new methods to analyze data, propagate component health information from the component to the system level, and optimize plant resources. In this respect, the risk informed asset management (RIAM) project has been tasked to develop and test this new class of methods into a risk analytics toolset. This toolset consists of data analytics tools coupled with reliability methods designed to manage plant assets and performances in a predictive maintenance context. This report shows the latest improvements on such development and the initial testing of our methods on the three main research areas that the RIAM project is focusing on. These areas are the following: equipment reliability data analytics, system reliability modeling, and plant resources optimization methods. We show how the methods developed in these areas can support predictive maintenance strategies by: 1) analyzing equipment reliability data (either in numeric and textual form), 2) assessing component and system health through an innovative margin-based reliability approach, and 3) identifying the most critical components and set optimal maintenance schedule based on plant economic and operational constraints.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Study on Intelligent Compaction-Equipment Logistics Scheduling and Propagation Characteristics of Vibration Wave in Nonlinear Systems with Multistability Based on Field Test

The equipment scheduling and propagation characteristics of vibration wave from vibratory roller ⟶ filling material nonlinear systems with multistability are the core problems of subgrade intelligent construction technology, and the logistics scheduling of the equipment is directly related to the construction efficiency. Aiming at the shortages, one typical subgrade located at the Gu’an station of Beijing-Xiong’an city railway is selected to research and finish the field tests; some findings are shown as follows: first, some valuable suggestions about the logistics scheduling of intelligent equipment are proposed, which can break the barriers between the organizations and improve construction efficiency; second, when the vibration wave propagates from the vibratory roller ⟶ surface of filling material ⟶ different buried depths of filling material, the peak acceleration of vibration wave gradually decreases and is hyperbolic distribution approximately. At the same time, the sensitive of attenuation is shown as follows: Z R 2 >0.9), and the concrete functional relationship among different amplitudes of harmonics can be summarized as y = Ae −BX ; fourth, the vibration energy is mainly concentrated near 10–30 Hz in the vibratory roller, but when the vibration wave propagates from vibratory roller⟶filling material, the vibration energy gradually decreases with the increase in depth, and the marginal spectrum gradually changes from one peak to two peaks, that is, 30–50 Hz and 50–100 Hz; fifth, the vibration energy in the vibrational wheel is distributed averagely in the compaction process, and the effective compaction time is two seconds, which will be helpful for revealing the propagation characteristics of vibration wave, optimizing the compaction quality control models and providing some support for the development of intelligent compaction theory of railway subgrade.

Han, Yixuan↗

DOE OSTI2022

PACT Module Design Acceptance Criteria (Research)

For the PACT center to both develop testing protocols and provide service to the metal halide perovskite (MHP) PV community, PACT will seek modules (mini and full-sized) for testing purposes. To ensure both safety and high-quality samples PACT publishes acceptance criteria to define the minimum characteristics of modules the center will accept for testing. These criteria help to ensure we are accepting technologies that are compatible with our technical facilities and testing equipment and can transition to large scale commercial manufacturing. This module design acceptance criteria document is for research partners (academia, national laboratories) and is different from the acceptance criteria for industry partners.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Closing the Accuracy Gap in Tandem Photovoltaic Testing: An Accessible and Efficient Spectral Tuning Method Using LED-Based Simulators for Research Laboratories and Industry

Accurate performance calibration of multijunction (MJ) solar cells is critical for advancing this technology toward large-scale terrestrial application, yet existing testing methods developed by photovoltaics calibration laboratories remain prohibitively complex and resource intensive for most research laboratories. Current approaches rely on expensive multisource simulators and/or intricate spectral tuning algorithms, limiting accessibility and hindering standardized comparisons of emerging MJ technologies such as perovskite-based tandems. This paper introduces a streamlined spectral irradiance adjustment method for light-emitting diode (LED)-based solar simulators, which are increasingly adopted in the photovoltaics community due to their versatility and cost-effectiveness. The method we present bins LED channels into groups based on the number of junctions of the MJ photovoltaic device under test (DUT) and their corresponding band gaps and incorporates an automated tuning algorithm that eliminates the need to adjust each channel’s irradiance individually. This tuning algorithm requires the relative spectral responsivities of both the DUT and a broadband reference cell, as well as a calibrated spectroradiometer. Measurement validation across various MJ devices, including III-V and perovskite/silicon tandems, demonstrates excellent agreement within 1% with well-established xenon-tungsten multisource simulators and associated tuning algorithms. By enabling precise spectral tuning with readily available equipment and a simple tuning algorithm, our approach bridges the measurement accuracy gap between research laboratories and accredited testing facilities, fostering more reliable device comparisons and accelerating the translation of MJ technologies into real-world energy systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗