Modeling of Photovoltaic modules under shading condition and an error evaluation criterion

Abstract

Energy is the focus of recent years. As one of the most representative new energy sources, solar energy has the characteristics of large reserves and no pollution. The main way to use solar energy is photovoltaic (PV) power generation, and the PV module in the PV power generation system is the component that converts solar energy into electric energy. In the actual power generation process, PV modules often receive uneven solar illumination due to the shadow caused by clouds, trees, buildings, etc., resulting in changes in the output characteristics of PV modules and reduced output efficiency. Therefore, modeling of PV modules under shading condition is very important. This paper presents two simple methods for solving the parameters of PV module models, which require few parameters and are easy to obtain. A modeling method of PV modules under shading condition is also presented. And then the modeling method is verified with the experiment result. Finally, an error criterion for PV module modeling under shading condition is proposed to measure the goodness of the modeling. Combining with the two parameter solving methods, the errors of this PV module modeling method under shading condition of the error criterion proposed in this paper are 3.24% and 2.51%, respectively, which meet the requirements for engineering use.