Photovoltaic I-V Curve Tracer for Hotspot Detection Applications

This paper presents the development of a portable, battery-powered photovoltaic curve tracer for hotspot detection purposes. A comprehensive experiment has been conducted to verify the applicability of the proposed device. In terms of hotspot detection and characterization, a set of I-V curves has been recorded at different levels of shading. The results have been compared with simulations based upon the single-diode model and thoroughly discussed. The model parameters have been extracted by curve fitting process, and the values at the cell level are 10 mΩ for series resistance and 2 Ω for shunt resistance. The open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current were determined from the measurement results and equal 0.586 V and 8.41 A, respectively. The comparison plot confirmed a good agreement between the measured and simulated results.