Abstract— The purpose of this paper is to show the generated. Thus, PV systems are considered to provide
emulation and analysis of a photovoltaic solar system by clean power and help cut global carbon emissions.
modelling its behavior in Matlab/Simulink. The emulation
process is done by using the DS1104 dspace real-time platform. Many models of PV solar panels have been designed and
The PV system is made up of a PV solar array, a DC-DC
power converter working on a buck-boost topology, and a
tested, [1] - [3] are only some works in this topic. However,
perturb and observe MPPT algorithm. The PV array model is creating tools to study the performance of different PV
based on the characteristics of a real PV panel, Yingli 265c- arrays allow a wide study of the different components in the
30b, and it is capable of delivering around 7 kW under optimal PV generation process. Several PV emulators in the market
ambient conditions and operating at its maximum power point. are capable of reproducing the I-V and P-V characteristics
The power curves of the system are shown to illustrate the of a real solar panel under static environmental conditions.
behavior of the MPPT algorithm as it works along with the However, not too many testing schemes are able to emulate
buck-boost converter to force the PV array voltage and a PV energy generation system under dynamic atmospheric
current to be at its highest value. conditions. The focus of this paper is to emulate, in real
Resumen— El propósito de este artículo es mostrar la
time, the behavior of the components of a PV system as it
emulación y el análisis de un sistema solar fotovoltaico tracks the maximum power point under uniform
modelando su comportamiento en Matlab/Simulink. El atmospheric conditions.
proceso de emulación del sistema se realiza en tiempo real
mediante la plataforma dSPACE DS1104. El sistema The PV model designed in this work would be able to
fotovoltaico está conformado por un arreglo de paneles solares, predict a c-Si PV cell behavior under varying atmospheric
un convertidor DC-DC con topología buck-boost y un conditions (irradiance and temperature) and for different
algoritmo de rastreo de máximo punto de potencia, perturbar values of loads. The analysis includes the variation of
y observar. El arreglo fotovoltaico está basado en las ambient temperature and irradiance conditions as well as the
características de operación de un panel real de referencia
Yingli 265c-30b. Este arreglo es capaz de entregar una
MPPT controller performance for these conditions,
potencia máxima de aproximadamente 7 kW cuando está all these in an emulation process. The emulation process is
trabajando bajo condiciones ambientales óptimas y su punto dedicated to reply the characteristic features of a PV system.
de operación coincide con en el máximo punto de potencia. Las Nevertheless, the emulator does not count with a power-
curvas de potencia del sistema se muestran para ilustrar el electronics stage. The voltage, current, and power
comportamiento del algoritmo MPPT trabajando en conjunto parameters represent real-life values.
con el convertidor buck-boost para llevar al arreglo a entregar
su máximo nivel de tensión y de corriente. II. PV SOLAR CELL MODEL
The PV model of the panels was obtained by taking into
I. INTRODUCTION
account the characteristics of the Yingli 265c-30b PV panel.
The increasing concern about the global warming, the Table I lists the electric specifications of the Yingli´s PV
exponential growth of the population of the world and the module at STC.
fact that it is getting harder and more expensive to extract
oil from fossil fuels is making people more aware of the use TABLE I
ELECTRIC CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE YINGLI 265C-30B SOLAR PANEL
of renewable energy sources. Solar energy is one of the
most important sources of energy in the world since it can C-Maximum power 265 W
be converted into other sources of energy such as chemical Maximum Power Voltage 30.1 V
(fuel cells), thermal (heat collectors) and electricity Maximum Power Current 8.79 A
(photovoltaic). Photovoltaic solar panels use the Short circuit Current 9.37 A
photovoltaic effect in order to transform solar energy into Open circuit Voltage 38.3 V
electricity. During this process, no pollutant emissions are Module efficiency 16.3%
An equivalent electronic circuit was used to model the = − −1 − , (4)
PV cell behavior; Fig. 1 shows the circuit model.
Based on Eq. (4), a Matlab/Simulink model was
constructed and properly analyzed for different atmospheric
and physic conditions of the equivalent model of the solar
cell. This model is divided into two main parts; the first one
is a script that calculates the current by Rsh, and the current
of the load I. The script considers equations (1)-(6) in order
to model the performance of a real solar cell by considering
Fig. 1. PV solar cell Equivalent model. the effects of the irradiance, the temperature, and the p-n
junction characteristics. The data obtained from the script is
The electronic circuit from Fig. 1 corresponds to the five- then coupled to a controlled current source. The second part
parameter equivalent circuit. The current source represents contains the power losses, and the combined effect of Rsh
the current generated by the sunlight absorption and Rs. A complete figure of the described PV Cell model is
(photocurrent). The diode represents the p-n junction of the shown in Fig. 2.
solar cell, the series resistance represents the voltage loss in
the metal contacts of the PV panel, and the parallel or shunt A. Operation of a PV Cell under Different Environmental
resistance represents a crack through the semiconductor Conditions
layer or a current path at the edge of the solar cell, Eq. (1) Solar irradiance is one of the most important atmospheric
describes the diode behavior. conditions since a photocurrent is obtained from the
absorption of photons coming from the sunlight. The
irradiance is the power per unit area and is usually
= −1 , (1)
expressed in unit. The STC to prove a solar cell
Where: indicate an irradiance of 1000 . Eq. (5), shows a
- represents the current at a certain voltage value linear behavior of the photocurrent in relation to the
- is the extreme small current under reverse bias irradiance and the temperature.
conditions or leakage current of a p-n junction (diode)
V- Diode voltage = + − 298.15 , (5)
- Electron charge = 1.6e-19 C
- Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38e-23 J/K Where:
- Temperature in Kelvin
is the solar cell’s short circuit current at 1000
When the p-n junction is illuminated with light, a large = when the cell is operating under STC.
current is generated. This current generated by the light is the solar cell’s short circuit current temperature, and is
absorption is represented with the current source of Fig. 1. equal to 0.0017 °
The equation (2) describes the solar cell behavior, where is temperature in Kelvin
is the photocurrent generated by light excited charge
carriers. Based on Eq. (4) and modifying the irradiance value
in Eq. (5), the I-V and P-V curves of Fig. 3 were
− = − −1, (2) obtained. Figure 3 shows that the higher the irradiance, the
larger the current gets. Since the current and the voltage
increase when the irradiance is greater, it is expected that
There are two important conditions in a solar cell. The
the power also increases, dotted line on the Fig. 3. In the
open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current. The open-
same way, Eq. (3) shows the direct relation between the
circuit voltage occurs when there is no load at the cell’s
temperature and the voltage of the PV solar cell. The
terminals and no current is produced, this condition can be
characteristic I-V and P-V curves from Fig. 4. were
expressed by Eq. (3), where n is the ideality factor of the
obtained by varying the temperature value from 25 to 70 °C.
diode, in general equal to 0.98117.
Equation (6) describes how the module´s saturation current
varies with the cell temperature.
= ln +1 , (3)
_
The short-circuit current occurs when the solar cell _ = exp (6)
produces no voltage, this means = 0, in this case I is
equal to IL, the short-circuit current depends on many
Where:
factors, but mainly on the irradiance. The PV solar Cell can
is the temperature reference in Kelvin
be seen as a current source controlled by irradiance,
temperature, and strongly dependent on the load´s current is the band gap energy = 1.21 eV for silicon
since it determines the cell’s voltage evolution. Returning to
Fig. 1, the equation that best describes the PV Cell
operation is Eq. (4).
Fig. 2. Full PV Cell model for simulation.
= − −1 − , (7)
= + , (8)
=− , (9)
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