Photovoltaic panel equivalent configuration

As the literature on the subject “equivalent models for photovoltaic cell” is very large and dispersed, the availability of a single cohesive and comprehensive document on the subject is crucial to gather information and understand the big picture.

If you want to carefully analyze the behavior of a circuit that includes a solar (aka photovoltaic, or PV) cell, you need to use an “equivalent circuit”—i.e., you need to replace the cell with a group of basic components that can produce similar electrical behavior. This is the equivalent circuit for a solar cell:

General ranking of the equivalent models for PV cell. PV cell equivalent model parameter estimation problem is a hot research topic in renewable energy. In this paper, the existing research works on PV cell model parameter estimation problem are classified per number of parameters, parameters' extraction, translation equations and PV technology.

The equivalent circuit models are the well-known ways for modelling PV cells (Jordehi, 2016), however, there exist other approaches for modelling PV cells. Furthermore, proper modelling of PV cells encompasses not just proper circuit model, but precise circuit model parameters (Jordehi, 2016).

4.1 Equivalent Circuit. The five-parameter PV performance model is derived from an equivalent circuit of a solar cell, which consists of a current source, a diode, and two resistors, as shown in Fig. 3. The current source IL represents charge carrier generation in the semiconductor layer of the PV cell caused by incident radia-tion.

In a PV module, PV cells are connected in a series and parallel configuration, depending on the voltage and current rating, respectively. Hence, PV modules tend to have a fixed topology. However, in the case of partial shading, mismatching or failure of a single PV cell can lead to many anomalies in a PV module's functioning.