In recent years, renewable energy sources such as solar energy have been increasing their importance in energy production day by day. Various studies have been carried out in the literature for the effective performance and control of solar cells that generate energy from the sun. Various solar cell models, such as single diode and double diode models, have been developed to improve performance and control. However, the main problem in these studies is the estimation of characteristic parameters accurately and efficiently. In the last decade, this problem has been tried to be solved by using metaheuristic algorithms in the literature. In this study, for the first time, the Mayfly algorithm (MA) is used for characteristic parameter estimation of photovoltaic models. In order to analyze the estimation performance of the proposed approach, frequently used solar cells and diode models are examined. The results were compared with literature studies. Current-voltage and Power-voltage graphs used to find the maximum point were created using the estimated parameters. The results obtained and the graphs drawn show that the proposed approach is correct and effective in parameter estimation of photovoltaic cells.