Contribution to the Modeling of Photovoltaic Generators

Abstract

In this dissertation, three different PV technologies: Poly-Crystalline Silicon (Poly C-Si), Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) are investigated in terms of several aspects. A PV model based on Manufacture’s Datasheet has been proposed. It is based on the usage of a simple procedure which takes only the datasheet parameters into consideration to identify the series resistance of solar cells. Moreover, the ideality factor value is adapted to fit the solar cell technology. Both the identified series resistance and the ideality factor values have been used within the solar cell block provided by Matlab-Simscape toolbox as well as SCAPS 1-D Software to model different PV modules having different technologies, as well to predict their characteristics (Current–Voltage (I-V) and Power–Voltage (P-V)). A test facility is employed to carry out the required tests for assessing the proposed PV model. Obtained experimental results under different climate conditions are compared with simulated ones. The comparison is carried out by evaluating four statistical errors with a view of measuring the accuracy of the proposed model in predicting the I-V and P-V characteristics.