Solar Photovoltaic Systems Modeling

1. Current-Voltage (I-V) Characteristics of PV cell

The practical PV cell is a current source, with an anti-parallel semiconductor

diode and series and parallel resistance. The electrical equivalent circuit using

single diode model of the PV cell is shown in Figure 1. Applying KCL, the net

current I is the difference between the light generated current Ipv, and the diode

current Id and the current through shunt resistance Ish of the PV cell, is written as

below.

Figure 1 Electrical equivalent circuit of PV cell.

1
 I = I pv − I − I
d sh (1)

The diode current Id and current through the shunt resistance Ish are given by

equation (2) and (3), respectively.

  q (V + IRse )  
I d = I o exp   − 1 − I sh
  α KT   (2)

V + IRse
I sh =
Rsh (3)

The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the PV cell can be obtained using

equations (2) and (3). The equation (1) can be expressed as below.

  q(V + IRse )   V + IRse

I = I pv − I o exp   − 1 −
  α KT   Rsh (4)

Neglecting the current through the shunt resistor, the PV current can be

approximated as below.

  q(V + IRse )  
I = I pv − I o exp   − 1
  α KT   (5)

The module voltage can be obtained using equation (5) as below.

2
 α KT  I pv − I 
V = log e  +1 − IRse
q  o I  (6)

α KT  I pv − I 
V ≈ log e  +1
q  Io 

α KT I 
Voc ≈ sc
log e  +1
q  Io 

Figure 2 I-V characteristics of a PV cell (a) light generated current (b) diode
current (c) output current.

Figure 2 shows the I-V characterisitcs of an ideal PV cell derived from the

equation (2), assuming the value of Rsh is large and Rse is negligible, and hence they

can be ignored for simplified PV model. The I-V characteristic of the PV cell is

greatly influenced by irradiation level and temperature. The amount of light

3
striking on the PV cell affects the generation of the charge carriers, and

accordingly, the current generated by the PV cell is expressed by the following

equation.

G
I sc = [ I sc _ STC + Ki (T − Tn )]
Gn
G (7)
≈ I sc _ STC if temperatureeffect is neglected
Gn

The diode saturation current Io and its dependence on the temperature can be

expressed by the equations defined below.

3
 n
T  qEg   1 1 
I o = I o,n   exp   − 
T   α K   Tn T  (8)

Where,

I and V cell output current and voltage;

Io cell reverse saturation current;

T cell temperature in Celsius;

K Boltzmann’s constant;

q Electronic charge;

Id diode current;

4
 Ish shunt current;

Ki short circuit current/temperature coefficient;

G solar irradiation in W/m2;

Isc short circuit current;

Gn nominal solar irradiation in W/m2;

Eg energy gap of silicon;

Io,n nominal saturation current;

Tn nominal temperature in Celsius;

Rse cell series resistance;

Rsh cell shunt resistance;

α ideality factor between 1.0 to 1.5;

Ipv light generated current of cell;

2. Photovoltaic Module

The typical PV cell can produce power in the range of 2-3 W and DC

voltage in the range 0.5-0.8 V. From practical point of view the output of single

cell is not useful for majority of applications. It requires sufficiently high voltage

and power levels, therefore the PV cells are electrically connected in series to form

a PV module. Most of the PV modules consist of 36 or 72 strings of series PV cells

to achieve desired voltage and power level. Figure 3 shows the PV module

5
connected with 36 string series PV cell. The PV cells in the module will carry the

same amount of current and the voltage will be the summation of the individual PV

cell voltages.

Figure 3 PV modules consisting of 36 string series PV cells.

3. Current-Voltage (I-V) Characteristics of PV Module

Consider a PV module consisting of NS number of PV cells group in series

and NP is the number of parallel PV cells in one PV cell group. Referring to the

equation (4) and (5), the relation between the PV module current and voltage can

be expressed by the following equations. For clarity, subscript ‘m’ in these

equations refers to the PV modules.

  q (Vm + I m Rse,m )   Vm + I m Rse,m

I m = I pv ,m − I o ,m exp   − 1 − (9)
  α KT   Rsh,m

6
   q (Vm + I m Rse,m )  
I m = I pv ,m − I o ,m exp   − 1 (10)
  α KT  
Using equation (9) the module voltage can be obtained as below.

α KT  I pv ,m − I m 
Vm = log e  +1 − I m Rse,m
q  I o ,m 
  (11)

Array

The relation between the PV module and PV cell, current and voltage are given by

the following equations in a Array.

I pv ,m = N p I (12)

Vm = N sV (13)

I o,m = N p I o (14)

Where,

Im module output current;

Vm module output voltage;

Rse,m module series resistance;

Rsh,m module shunt resistance;

Io,m reverse saturation current of PV cell group;

7
 Ipv,m light generated current of PV cell group;

Ipv light generated current of single PV cell;

Io reverse saturation current of single PV cell;

Np number of parallel connected cells in one cell group;

Ns number of series connected cell group;

Generally, a module consists of series connection of single PV cells and therefore

Np =1

4. Open Circuit Voltage, Short Circuit Current and Maximum Power

Point

Figure 4 shows the I-V characteristics of the PV module derived from the

equation (10). It can be described with reference to three operating points, i.e.,

short circuit current Isc, open circuit voltage Voc and, maximum power point voltage

and current Vmpp, Impp. The open circuit voltage Voc can be defined using equation

(9), when output current of the module is zero, as below.

α KT  I pv ,m 
Voc = log e  + 1
q   (15)
 I o,m 

8
Figure 4 I-V characteristics of PV module and three remarkable points: short
circuit current (Isc, 0), maximum power point (Impp, Vmpp) and open circuit
voltage (0, Voc).

The short circuit current Isc is the current at which the module voltage is zero. It can

be defined using equation (10) and is approximately equal to the light generated

current of the PV module.

I sc = I pv ,m (16)

The point on the I-V characteristics at which the PV module generates the

maximum power is the maximum power point (MPP) of the PV module and is the

product of Impp and Vmpp. It can be seen from Figure that the characteristics has two

regions of operation, i.e., current source region and voltage source region. The PV
9
module behaviour is generally called as current source, because mostly the

operating region lies in the current source region between the short circuit current

point and the maximum power point. Where, the voltage source region is the

region between the open circuit voltage points to the maximum power point and

this is a narrow region. The maximum power point is unique point as clearly

visible from the I-V characteristics shown in Figure 4, which is discussed in detail

in the next chapter.

5. Temperature and Irradiation Effects

Temperature and irradiation are the two important factors that strongly affect

the characteristics of the PV modules. When the characteristic changes due to

change in the environmental conditions, the maximum power point also varies

accordingly.

The PV cell temperature mainly affects the PV module voltage. The open circuit

voltage linearly depends upon the temperature as shown by the following equation.

Voc (T ) = Voc , STC − γ v (T − TSTC ) (17)

Where Voc (T) is the open circuit voltage at present module temperature T; Voc,STC is

the open circuit voltage at standard test condition; γv is the voltage temperature co-

efficient; T is the temperature of the module; TSTC is the module temperature at

standard test condition. It can be seen from equation (17) that the open circuit

10
voltage decreases with the increase in temperature, whereas there is very small

effect on the PV current due to change in the temperature. Hence the PV power

decreases with increase in the temperature. Table 1 shows the electrical parameters

of the 37 W, VIKRAM SOLAR ELDORA 40 PV module..

Table.1 Electrical parameters of PV module under standard testing

condition
Maximum power (PMAX) 37 W Temperature T = 250C,
Voltage at MPP (VMPP) 17.20 V irradiation G= 1000
Current at MPP (IMPP) 2.20 A W/m2
Open circuit voltage (VOC) 21.80 V
Short circuit current (ISC) 2.40 A

The I-V characteristics of the PV module at constant solar irradiation level of G =

800 W/m2 under different temperature are plotted in Figure 5. The P-V

characteristics of the PV module are shown in Figure 6. The solar simulator is used

for conducting the experiment to validate the P-V characteristics with the

parameters listed in Table 1..

11
Figure 5 Model based I-V characteristics of PV module under different cell

temperature.

Figure 6 Model based P-V characteristics of PV module under different cell

temperature.

12
Refer to equation (7), it illustrate the effect of solar irradiation on the I-V and P-V

characteristics of the solar PV module. The PV current and hence the short circuit

current is directly proportional to the solar irradiation level as seen from (7). The

light generated current is the main contributing factor in the PV module current as

expressed by equation (9) and (10). Hence the I-V characteristics of the PV module

have great dependency on the solar irradiation.

The I-V characteristics of the PV module at constant temperature of 250C

under different solar irradiation using model based simulations are shown in Figure

7. The P-V characteristics are shown in Figure 8.

Figure 7 Model based I-V characteristics of PV module under different solar

irradiation.

13
Figure 8 Model based P-V characteristics of PV module under different solar
irradiation.

14