Solar Energy Potentials to Develop Power Device Sizing and Integration for Solar-Powered Aircraft (UAV) Application
Abstract
Solar-powered aircraft used solar energy as a source of energy to power the aircraft. Solar energy has limited capacity to harness the available solar energy and lack proper power device sizing. Photovoltaic geography information system software was employed to harness solar energy and obtained a solar radiation model for Malaysia. The model was used to develop an energy balance and mission path to effectively conserved solar energy and efficient solar aircraft performance. Power device sizing was developed with the required PV cell as 32 and rechargeable battery as 74. The power devices are integrated into the aircraft, the PV cell on the wings and the battery in the aircraft's fuselage