Validation of PV numerical simulation model with an experimental setup

Abstract

The renewable energy industry has experienced continuous growth, as humanity looks for more sustainable ways to produce electrical energy. Today, photovoltaics represents the biggest share of the renewable energy industry The study begins with a presentation of the working principles of a photovoltaic panel. Then a numerical model of a photovoltaic panel is developed, based on actual characteristics from a commercial panel. The main goal is to produce a model capable of analyzing the different operating conditions of solar panels and predict their behavior by employing the appropriate parameters. The model is built in Matlab/SIMULINK, based on the equivalent circuit of PV cells. The results are validated with experimental test data obtained by operating the PV panel both with an indoor solar simulator and the real sun. In both cases the modelled and experimental results are very close.