Explicit Expressions for Solar Panel Equivalent Circuit Parameters Based on Analytical Formulation and the Lambert W-Function

Javier Cubas, Santiago Pindado and Carlos De Manuel
Additional contact information
Javier Cubas: Instituto Universitario de Microgravedad "Ignacio Da Riva" (IDR/UPM), Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Aeronáutica y del Espacio (ETSIAE), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pza. del Cardenal Cisneros 3, Madrid 28040, Spain
Santiago Pindado: Instituto Universitario de Microgravedad "Ignacio Da Riva" (IDR/UPM), Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Aeronáutica y del Espacio (ETSIAE), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pza. del Cardenal Cisneros 3, Madrid 28040, Spain
Carlos De Manuel: Instituto Universitario de Microgravedad "Ignacio Da Riva" (IDR/UPM), Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Aeronáutica y del Espacio (ETSIAE), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pza. del Cardenal Cisneros 3, Madrid 28040, Spain

Energies, 2014, vol. 7, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Due to the high dependence of photovoltaic energy efficiency on environmental conditions (temperature, irradiation...), it is quite important to perform some analysis focusing on the characteristics of photovoltaic devices in order to optimize energy production, even for small-scale users. The use of equivalent circuits is the preferred option to analyze solar cells/panels performance. However, the aforementioned small-scale users rarely have the equipment or expertise to perform large testing/calculation campaigns, the only information available for them being the manufacturer datasheet. The solution to this problem is the development of new and simple methods to define equivalent circuits able to reproduce the behavior of the panel for any working condition, from a very small amount of information. In the present work a direct and completely explicit method to extract solar cell parameters from the manufacturer datasheet is presented and tested. This method is based on analytical formulation which includes the use of the Lambert W-function to turn the series resistor equation explicit. The presented method is used to analyze commercial solar panel performance ( i.e. , the current-voltage– I-V –curve) at different levels of irradiation and temperature. The analysis performed is based only on the information included in the manufacturer’s datasheet.

Keywords: photovoltaic energy; equivalent circuit; parameters; Lambert W-function; analytical; maximum power point tracking (MPPT) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/7/7/4098/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/7/7/4098/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:7:y:2014:i:7:p:4098-4115:d:37518

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().