OTSun: An Open Source Code for Optical Analysis of Solar Thermal Collectors and PV Cells

摘要

The OTSun project is a research project whose main objective is to develop an open-source software to simulatethe optical behavior of solar collectors. In this Monte Carlo ray tracing program, the trajectory of light rays isdetermined by the Fresnel equations of electromagnetic optics. The geometry of the solar collector is generatedusing the free software FreeCAD, allowing the user to visualize the scene. OTSun determines the optical efficiencyof solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic solar cells. Its library is hosted on GitHub and, to make it more userfriendly,a webtool has been developed. This paper describes the implemented algorithm as well as the types ofmaterials available in the library. Two simple cases are presented, step by step, to allow for a correct simulationof solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic solar cells.