Modelling and Performance Analysis of Photovoltaic System for Low Cost Lawn cutting Application

Electrical properties derived from the current– voltage (I–V) and power-voltage (P-V) characteristics of solar cells provide essential information about performance losses and device efficiency. Accurate evaluation of model parameters is desirable for predicting the performance of solar cell under varying climatic conditions. The conversion efficiency of a photo voltaic cell depends on various parameters of the cell such as light generated current, diode saturation current, series resistance, shunt resistance and ideality factor. This paper addresses two approaches to extract the parameters of single diode model. The error analysis proves the need for parameter estimation whose reliability depends on various assumption and energy conversion rations. The effectiveness of modelling is investigated using MATLAB/SIMULINK which clearly reveals that the numerical methods are best suited for parameter estimation under stochastic environmental condition. An experimental analysis was carried out on a 75 Watt Mono-crystalline photovoltaic. Finally, a low cost prototype of solar lawn cutter was proposed as a potential application to incorporate the promising sustainable technology