A novel approach using iterative g-function and chaotic cooperation search for accurate voltage calculation of double and triple diode solar cell models

Abstract

The solar cells can be accurately represented via double and triple-diode models (DDM and TDM, respectively). In this paper, a novel iterative procedure based on applying the g-function is proposed for double and triple solar cell voltage calculation for the first time. The proposed iterative procedure is performed without any approximations, while its application overcomes numerical limitations when applying literature-accepted approaches based on the Lambert W function. Also, one notable advantage of the proposed procedure is its effectiveness with arbitrary starting point values. Second, in this paper, an original equation for calculating solar cells’ root mean square error (RMSE) voltage (RMSEU) in the DDM and TDM, which aids in parameter estimation, is proposed. Third, the paper introduces a new metaheuristic algorithm called the Chaotic Cooperation Search Algorithm (ChCSA) for estimating solar cell parameters. The proposed approach (iterative procedure for voltage-current representation as well as a novel algorithm) is tested on two well-known solar cells in the literature and on measured current-voltage characteristics for different weather conditions. Applying the proposed algorithm and the novel iterative procedure for DDM and TDM voltage calculations demonstrated the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach for solar cell parameter estimation. In order to achieve the appropriate accuracy, it was shown that only a few iterations of the proposed iterative procedure are needed for the majority of measurement points in both observed cells. Furthermore, the application of the proposed algorithm outperforms existing algorithms in solar cell parameter estimation. Moreover, with the well-known Photowatt-PWP 201 solar module, the application of the proposed algorithm enables the estimation of the parameters of the solar cell so that the RMSEU value is reduced by about 50 % compared to the results obtained for the parameters determined by numerous approaches from the literature. Therefore, the presented research offers a novel and original double and triple solar cell modeling perspective.