Extraction of parameters for simulating photovoltaic panels

Presented in this paper is a method of simulating photovoltaic modules by taking the manufacturer specified data at standard test conditions as inputs. A method for estimating unknown parameters of a simplified version of the single diode solar cell model corresponding to a given photovoltaic panel is described. In the proposed approach, the equivalent circuit represents an entire solar panel, composed of several solar cells. A new method, which is simple, is also proposed to identify the ideality factor of the equivalent diode along with the series resistance. Estimated unknowns are used in generating module output curves at different environmental conditions. The generated curves are compared with manufacturer's data. The curves are also compared with curves generated with an alternative method available in the literature. The superiority of the proposed technique is demonstrated.