Characterization and Sensitivity Analysis of a Photovoltaic Panel

Abstract

The characterization of photovoltaic (PV) panels is crucial both in post-manufacturing quality control and operational phases. To achieve this purpose, models of equivalent electronic circuits are utilized. The modeling of photovoltaic panels can be simulated using single-diode and double-diode models. These models differ in the number of parameters due to the inclusion of one or two diodes, resulting in non-linearity within the mathematical descriptions of these systems. In this study, a single-diode model with 5 parameters has been employed to analyze the system’s behavior. Sensitivity analysis and a comparative study of two different numerical methods were conducted to assess the estimation of the maximum power. Furthermore, the internal and external factors influencing the performance of photovoltaic panels were studied and analyzed. To simulate panel degradation, both the serial resistance and temperature were considered as slow time-varying internal and external parameters, affecting the I-V characteristic and the Maximum Power Point. This work presents a comparative study of heuristic search algorithms applied to the two models, accompanied by a simulation of a real-time application.