A Curve Tracer for Photovoltaic Modules Based on The Capacitive Load Method

This work presents the development of a current versus voltage (I-V) curve tracer of photovoltaic (PV) modules based on the capacitive load method, being this an important approach for checking the integrity of PV devices and also the extraction of intrinsic parameters for modeling purposes. The tracer employs a microcontroller to manipulate the data acquired from current and voltage sensors associated with the module output quantities. For comparison purposes, three different values of capacitance are used to trace I-V characteristic of a 5-Wp module, as it is possible to verify that the capacitor charging time has direct influence on the number of acquired points that constitute the curve.