ELECTRIC-THERMAL PHOTOVOLTAIC MODELING AND APPLICATIONS

Abstract

This work introduces an electric-thermal model for a photovoltaic (PV) cell, which combines electrical and thermal parameters and also incorporates dynamic characteristics and accurate modeling in the reverse-bias region. Incoming irradiance and ambient temperature are used to calculate the PV cell temperature based on a five-layer thermal model. The cell temperature in the electrical model is updated according to the thermal model to accurately adjust the PV cell output electrical characteristics. To test and validate the electrical and thermal characteristics of the PV cell, a custom setup was built that allows temperature measurement at the PV cell and glass surfaces. Performance of the electric-thermal model in both forward and reverse-bias region is verified using experimental data in realistic scenarios. This PV model can be scaled up and used to simulate PV systems in a wide variety of applications, extreme environmental conditions, and fault conditions.