Simulations Based on Experimental Data of the Behaviour of a Monocrystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module

Abstract

The performance of monocrystalline silicon cells depends widely on the parameters like the series and shunt resistances, the diode reverse saturation current, and the ideality factor. Many authors consider these parameters as constant while others determine their values based on the I-V characteristic when the module is under illumination or in the dark. This paper presents a new method for extracting the series resistance, the diode reverse saturation current, and the ideality factor. The proposed extraction method using the least square method is based on the fitting of experimental data recorded in 2014 in Ngaoundere, Cameroon. The results show that the ideality factor can be considered as constant and equal to 1.2 for the monocrystalline silicon module. The diode reverse saturation current depends only on the temperature. And the series resistance decreases when the irradiance increases. The extracted values of these parameters contribute to the best modeling of a photovoltaic module which can help in the accurate extraction of the maximum power.