Solar cell parameter identification using the three main points of the current–voltage characteristic

Abstract

A new efficient approach for extracting solar cell parameters based on the three main points of the I-V characteristic of the five-parameter model is presented. The proposed method allows extracting the single-diode model parameters using only the information provided by the manufacturer's datasheet or those obtained under else conditions and able to accurately represent their electrical behavior. A transcendental equation is formulated where the search space is reduced from five to two dimension; this equation links exclusively the series resistance and the ideality factor. The graphical optimization technique is proposed to solve the found equation. The accuracy of the method presented is justified by four important reference studies in the literature and has been widely used by researchers and two other cases presented in a single study. Besides, the results of the proposed procedure are compared to the most recent techniques proposed in the literature. Moreover, the results show that the current versus voltage I-V characteristics of the solar panels are presented with satisfactory precision with regard to the different algorithms and methods to solve the kind problems in different conditions of temperature and irradiation; in particular, at the point of maximum power, the error is always well below 0.01%.