Implementing a didactic photovoltaic energy laboratory for developing countries

PV (Photovoltaic) didactic systems are becoming a need in engineering schools. In this paper, we present a didactic PV system. The system is designed to educate engineering students on the physical aspects of PV panels including the effect of irradiance, temperature, incident light angle, partial shading, I-V and P-V curves, utility of by-pass diodes, and MPPT algorithms. The system has high degrees of freedom and is equipped with a Data Acquisition System for future expansions and a wide number of experiments.