PV module single–diode model, parameter extraction of polycrystalline and amorphous solar panel

Abstract

Solar energy is a good option to replace the fossil driven energy market. Research is still ongoing to make solar technologies more efficient and affordable. Modeling is key in this area. Parameter extraction of PV modules enables easier simulation and accurate modeling of various PV cells/modules. The parameters are namely: (I) the photo generated current, ????????ℎ, (II) the reverse saturation current, ????????, (III) ideality factor, n, (IV) the series resistance, ???????? and (V) the shunt resistance, ????????ℎ. This research work extracted the equivalent circuit parameters of polycrystalline and amorphous solar panels. An 11 V polycrystalline and 6 V amorphous solar panels were illuminated with a 500 W halogen lamp to generate I-V characteristics with the aid of a data capture device. A Matlab/Simulink model was modified using the single diode equation to model the two test solar panels. The Orthogonal Distance Regression (ODR) method from the origin lab was adopted to solve the nonlinear/transcendental equation of the solar cell/module with the single diode model to determine the parameters of a polycrystalline and amorphous solar panel. The results show a variation in the parameters of the two test solar panels. The polycrystalline indicates a higher ????????ℎ and ????????ℎ with low ???????? and n values, which result to high efficiency. The amorphous panel shows higher n and ???????? values, which makes it have low efficiency. The polycrystalline solar panel has smaller residual sum of square (RSS) which makes it a better retrieval while the amorphous solar panel has a higher residual sum of square (RSS), the ODR method for polycrystalline was more accurate than the amorphous solar panel as observed from the validation results of the two test panels.