Photovoltaic Technology and Systems

(EE 401)
PV Cell Characteristics and
Equivalent Circuit
Model of PV cell

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Short circuit, open circuit and peak power parameters:-
Short circuit:

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Open circuit:

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Peak power:

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DATASHEET STUDY

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CELL EFFICIENCY:

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EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON PV CELL
CHARACTERISTICS:

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TEMPERATURE EFFECT CALCULATION EXAMPLE:

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FILL FACTOR:

Fill factor:- Fill factor is actually a figure of merit

for the PV cell. It tells how good or how bad a PV
cell is. It is actually a ratio.

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SERIES AND PARALLEL INTERCONNECTION:

IDENTICAL CELL IN SERIES

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LOAD LINE

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NON-IDENTICAL CELL IN SERIES

Open circuit condition

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Increasing load

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Increasing load further

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Increasing load further more

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Increasing load further more

VT2 =0

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Increasing load further more

VT2 = Negative

Quadrant 1 is source
quadrant

Quadrant 2 is the sink

quadrant

Cell 2 in sink quadrant

Positive voltage for cell 1

and negative voltage for
cell 2. Cell 1 is acting as
source and cell 2 as sink

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Increasing load further more to
make short circuit is combined
voltage is zero

VT1 = VT2
Operating point is at current
axis for the combined
characteristic.
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Plotting the power curve on the
combined characteristic

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PV cell 2 sinking PV cell 2 sourcing

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cell 2 acts as a sink during a portion of the I-V characters in the combined
cell and that is detrimental to the PV cell 2.

It deteriorates its characteristics not only that it becomes the dissipater
and it dissipates this extra power and thereby bring down the efficiency of
the entire system.

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Protecting cells in series

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Interconnecting modules in series

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IDENTICAL CELL IN PARALLEL

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NON-IDENTICAL CELL IN
PARALLEL

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TOTALLY NON-
IDENTICAL CELL IN
PARALLEL

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LOAD LINE ON Y
AXIS

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PROTECTING CELL IN PARALLAL

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INTERCONNECTING MODULE

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 The photovoltaic modules
power converters and power converters for energy
storage
the storage mechanisms and the loads
One of the important players of the solar PV system is the solar
energy
it is the source of the energy and this energy is incident on a
collector which is the photovoltaic module.
the photovoltaic module collects the solar energy and then
makes available in the form of an electrical energy across the
terminals of the PV module.
The electrical energy, one of the things that can be stored. So we
pass it through a power electronic block, it is an energy charger
block, it contains power electronic components like the BJT,
MOSFET, IGBTs and other control circuits and then that is used
for passing the
energy into a storage device.

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There are many different types of storage devices.
 Chemical storage like the battery where electrical energy is converted to chemical
and then retrieved using electrochemical means.
 Hydro storage. The electrical energy is converted, it lifts water to a height and
stores potential energy of the lifted water is called the Pumped hydro. The energy
can be retrieved with the help of water turbine.
 Storage of the electrical energy as compressed air. It can drive a compressor and
compress the air into different levels of pressures and it can retrieved with the
help of an air turbine.
 Mechanical kinetic energy in the form of a rotating flywheel and retrieve it by
means of an electric generator

 Energy charger- bi-directional energy charger- Power electronic device

 DC load, AC load

 Grid connection- smart grid

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MPPT (maximum power point tracker)
 All the power conversion, power converters and energy converters must
incorporate maximum power point tracker.
 The PV module has a power versus voltage characteristic. The characteristic
has a peak at one operating point only and it is recommended that the PV
module operates at that peak power operating point so that you can get the
maximum output of the PV cells.
 So power conversion unit, the power converters or the energy charger units
have to ensure that the load must be appropriate to the PV module such
that this will operate at maximum power point. So this maximum power
point tracking algorithms should be inbuilt and should become inherent part
of these power converters.

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Sizing of the PV modules:
Sizing of the PV module is very important because it occupies a lot
of real estate and real estate does not come cheap and therefore you
need to give a lot of thought into this. Unfortunately this has lot of
dependency on
Local geography
the incident radiation coming from the Sun
the atmospheric condition
Water vapor content
the latitude
time of the day
time of the year

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P0 is dependent on the area of the collector and Li cos θ which is the incident insulation normal to the
collector. P0 is dependent on the application. The application will tell how much load power is needed and
this is the amount of electrical power output the panel as to give. P0 is dependent on the area of the collector
and Li cos θ which is the incident insulation normal to the collector. P0 is dependent on the application. The
application will tell how much load power is needed and this is the amount of electrical power output the
panel as to give.
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Our objective now is to go towards finding as accurate a value of the incident insulation as
possible so that we may be able to size the panel, size the collector area for a given load our
requirement.

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INSOLATION AND IRRADIANCE

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INSOLATION VARIATION WITH THE TIME OF DAY
 We have discussed about insolation and spectral irradiance of the Sun in a generic manner where the sun's
spectrum does not change and the insolation of the sun's spectrum remains unchanged in whichever direction
that you look at.

 However, for a person on earth or a person with reference to the earth, the insolation is not constant. On earth,
during night time, there is no solar radiation and therefore the insolation is zero. During noon the solar
radiation is maximum and therefore the insolation is maximum.

 During the morning dawn and during evening dusk, you will see insolation at a very low value. All this is
because the earth is rotating about its own axis, these are the daily changes and the earth is also revolving
about the Sun in an elliptic orbit, giving rise to seasonal changes and all these affect the insolation at a given
locality on the earth.

 Therefore, it is very important that we study insolation due to the Sun or due to the Sun spectrum with
reference to the earth. So, how do we correlate this Sun spectrum and arrive at insolation with reference to the
earth is very important for sizing the solar PV panels

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 this profile will change depending upon the latitude at the equator it will be different, at the northern latitudes it will be
different, at the southern latitudes it will be different.
 But at a given longitude-latitude point, at a given locale, you will have a profile something like this over the day.
 It is assumed that right now there is no atmospheric condition.

 Once we know the daily insolation profile, we will be able to

derive the solar photovoltaic panel requirement in terms of
peak power.
 So, we have the x-axis which is the time axis and the y axis
which is the insolation in kW/m2
 The region within this green insolation profile and take the
area within this region, it is nothing but the energy because it
is the kW/m2 into the time in hours will give you the energy
in kilowatt hour per meter square

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Atmospheric effects is the one which is most difficult to estimate. The atmospheric
conditions like cloud conditions, water vapor content in the atmosphere, gases present
in the atmosphere, etc., all these things affect the incident solar energy. Now, all these
are not deterministic. At, on a given day we do not know what is the condition and
what is effects. You have to take probably the statistical values for all these

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Earth-centric view point and declination

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 angle between the equatorial plane
and the line joining the center of
the earth and the center of the sun
 This angle is called declination and
it is denoted by the symbol δ

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Solar geometry
In order to estimate the insolation in kW/m2 and the H, the energy in
kWh/m2/day at any given point on the surface of the earth, we shall use the
help of solar geometry, solar geometry is nothing but the spherical coordinate
system but as it also involves the position of the Sun in relation to the earth, it
is generally referred to as solar geometry.
We shall reconstruct this coordinate system step by step and try to get insight
into the various parameters that we have used in relation with the position of
the sun and later use these parameters to estimate the insolation and the
energy H in kWh /m2/day at any given point on the surface of the earth

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Insolation on horizontal flat plate

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Energy on a horizontal flat plate

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Sunrise and sunset angles

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Examples

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Energy on a tilted flat plate

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Atmospheric effect:

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AIRMASS:

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Energy with atmospheric effect:

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