Modelling and simulating photovoltaic energy harvesting circuit: An analysis based on trial and error approximation for optimal output power of a harvester

Small-scale energy harvesting solutions based on photovoltaic energy are widely adopted in space and terrestrial applications. This research demonstrates the simulation based study of a commercial solar cell module using the circuit simulator LTSpice. The real-time characteristics of a solar cell are emulated by modelling a single diode equivalent circuit. Moreover, the electrical specifications of solar cell have been calculated to find the five-parameters of the solar equivalent circuit based on the Lambert W function. In order to measure the complete efficiency of the energy harvesting system, the Linear Technology's LTC 3105 power IC is being simulated with a solar cell. The case study is being produced to analyze the trial and error approximation for finding the optimal maximum output power of the system.