Design and implementation of an I-V curvetracer dedicated to characterize PV panels

Abstract

In recent years, solar photovoltaic energy is becoming very important in the generation of green electricity. Solar photovoltaic effect directly converts solar radiation into electricity. The output of the photovoltaic module MPV depends on several factors as solar irradiation and cell temperature. A curve tracer is a system used to acquire the PV current-voltage characteristics, in real time, in an efficient manner. The shape of the I-V curve gives useful information about the possible anomalies of a PV device. This paper describes an experimental system developed to measure the current–voltage curve of a MPV under real conditions. The measurement is performed in an automated way. This present paper presents the design, and the construction of I-V simple curve tracer for photovoltaic modules. This device is important for photovoltaic (PV) performance assessment for the measurement, extraction, elaboration and diagnose of entire current-voltage I-V curves for several photovoltaic modules. This system permits to sweep the entire I-V curve, in short time, with different climatic and loads conditions. An experimental test bench is described. This tracer is simple and the experimental results present good performance. Simulation and experimental tests have been carried out. Experimental results presented good performance.