Simulation, output power optimization and comparative study of silicon and thin film solar cell modules

This paper presents a performance comparison between the polycrystalline thin film Photovoltaic (PV) module with mono crystalline silicon module in terms of their simulated current-voltage characteristics, output power and energy conversion efficiencies in standard test conditions. An accurate PV module electrical model is derived based on the Shockley diode equation. The output power of the modules has been maximised, with temperature and irradiation data as variable inputs, using maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods to ensure optimum utilization of PV module. Simulation studies using three MPPT techniques have been presented. Fixed Reference Voltage method, Perturb and Observe method and Incremental Conductance method for MPPT are presented in details. The simulated results of all the three techniques for Silicon and Thin Film cells show excellent correspondence to the manufacturer's data.