Geometric modeling and optimization in 3D solar cells : implementation and algorithms

Conversion of solar energy in three-dimensional (3D) devices has been essentially untapped. In this thesis, I design and implement a C++ program that models and optimizes a 3D solar cell ensemble embedded in a given landscape. The goal is to find the optimum arrangement of these solar cells with respect to the landscape buildings so as to maximize the total energy collected. On the modeling side, in order to calculate the energies generated from both direct and reflected sunlight, I store all the geometric inputs in a binary space partition tree; this data structure in turn efficiently supports a crucial polygon clipping algorithm. On the optimization side, I deploy simulated annealing (SA). Both advantages and limitation of SA lead me to restrict the solar cell docking sites to orthogonal grids imposed on the building surfaces. The resulting program is an elegant trade-off between accuracy and efficiency.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Wan, Jin Hao, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jeffrey C. Grossman.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92087

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/92087