Parameter Extraction for Single-Diode Model of Solar Cell

A method to extract five parameters in the single-diode equivalent circuit of a solar cell is described in detail. The parameter extraction is mainly from the knowledge of the sole information contained in the datasheets given by the manufacturer of the solar cell. Besides the information with regard to the most representative points of the I-V curve (short circuit, open circuit, and the maximum power point) provided by all manufacturers, it just needs one more operating point. The extra information can be obtained either from the datasheet or by simple testing without setting up a complicated measurement system. There is only one unknown parameter in the proposed objective function, reducing the dimension and complexity of heuristic algorithm. The algorithm is applied to extract five parameters in the equivalent circuit and fit the I-V curve of AzurSpace's solar cell 3C40. Experimental results show that this approach leads to a reduction of the measurement effort and allows an accurate reconstruction of the solar cell characteristics as well.