Application of firefly algorithm for power estimations of solar photovoltaic power plants

Abstract

ABSTRACT Modeling of solar photovoltaic cell is an essential requirement in the computations involved in solar photovoltaic power systems. Some metaheuristic algorithms are used for determining the cell parameters in the literature, however, more investigation is required with reference to varying solar irradiation and temperature to improve the accuracy of the models. Hence, this paper proposes firefly algorithm for identification of the cell parameters accurate enough to construct the cell characteristics under varying solar irradiation and temperature conditions. Experimental results obtained at standard irradiation and temperature of 1000 W/m2, 25°C, and at other irradiation levels such as 80 0 W/m2 and 600 W/m2, temperature levels such as 40°C and 50°C were presented along with simulated values. The value of series resistance, shunt resistance and diode ideality factor for temperatures from 20°C to 60°C and irradiation of 400 W/m2 to 1000 W/m2 are computed using this proposed method. A comparison of the proposed method with other researchers at irradiation of 1000, 800, and 600 W/m2 and 25°C was provided. The results of implementation show that there is a good agreement between computed values and data sheet values. The proposed method will definitely be useful for large scale solar photovoltaic designers, researchers, simulators.