Modeling of PV Module with Consideration of

Environmental Factors
Nand Kishor, Member, IEEE, Marcelo Gradella Villalva, Soumya Ranjan Mohanty, Member, IEEE,
Ernesto Ruppert

to give a required voltage and current in so called PV module.

AbstractThis paper discusses the modeling of single-diode This PV module forms a series-parallel combination to work
photovoltaic cell to estimate the maximum power with respect to as PV array. The DC output is converted into AC at standard
changes in environmental factors that effects its efficiency frequency through an inverter. The PV system application can
performance. The parameters, i.e. resistances for the modeling of
PV cell are determined for nonlinear I-V characteristics to
be as grid connected, stand alone or hybrid.
replicate the maximum power point. These values are determined The PV cell/module output is highly nonlinear and its
at various environmental factors like; dust, solar radiation simplified form model as a constant voltage source or a
intensity, shadow, temperature and wind velocity. current controlled voltage source is often not practicable in
field. Over the years, several models have been proposed.
Index TermsPV array, modeling, maximum power point There exists three basic types of PV system models based on
(i) PV array characteristics [1-3], (ii) inverter structure
I. NOMENCLATURE characteristics [4-7], (iii) overall PV system [8-9]. The
I0 Diode saturation current nonlinear PV array characteristics which varies not only with
temperature and solar intensity, but also with other
I photo ,cell Photon current environmental factors like, dust and wind velocity still
T0 Actual temperature in K remains a major challenge to model. It is important to
understand the PV module/array characteristics for effective
Tn Nominal temperature in K installation under all weather conditions.
G0 Solar radiation on the cell surface in W / m2 In the past, researchers have already studied the
characteristics of PV module and the factors that influence
Gn Nominal solar radiation in W / m2 their performance [10-13]. Walker [10] proposed a MATLAB
KI Current coefficient based model of PV module for study of temperature, solar
intensity and load variation. The influence of partial shading
KV Voltage coefficient effect was discussed in [11-13]. A fast MPPT algorithm for
Ns Number of series cells of the module tracking the maximum under fast changing environmental
conditions is investigated in [14]. The authors have considered
Vt Thermal voltage of the cell study for rapidly changing solar radiation. A theoretical model
to estimate the solar cell performance degradation due to dust
II. INTRODUCTION accumulation is carried out in [15].

P HOTOVOLTAIC resource among all the renewables is
considered to be increasingly important for power
generation in last few decades. This has resulted not only
decreased dependence on fossil fuel but also in emission of
greenhouse gases. Photovoltaic for power generation is
considered ideal resource in the distributed generation system,
which are located at or near to the load point.
A single PV cell being too small for practical power
application is usually connected as series-parallel combination
Nand Kishor is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Motilal Nehru
National Institute of Technology Allahabad-211004, India (e-mail:
nandkishor@mnnit.ac.in).
S. R. Mohanty is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Motilal
Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad-211004, India (e-mail:
soumyaigit@gmail.com).
Marcelo Gradella Villalva and Ernesto Ruppert are with the School of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas, Brazil,
(e-mails: mvillalva@gmail.com, ruppert@fee.unicamp.br)
Recently an analytical approach to determine the PV cell
parameters, i.e. resistances by adjustment of I-V equation
with experimental characteristics was suggested in [16].
This paper discusses the modeling of PV cell/array based on
the approach mentioned in [16] for various environmental
factors that affect the output performance.
III. SINGLE DIODE PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL MODEL
Without much emphasis given on physics of how the PV cell
transforms the solar photons into direct current power, this
section starts with modeling concept of single diode PV cell.
The standard PV cell is represented as a current source in
parallel with a single diode. The equivalent circuit diagram is
shown in Fig. 1. The output, I photo ,cell is directly proportional
to amount of solar incident on the PV cell. It is the diode that
determines the shape of I-V characteristics of a PV cell. A
more detailed model can be represented by inclusion of Rs
following:
I d ,cell I PV ,cell
Temperature dependence of the diode saturation current, I 0 I photo ,cell
Temperature dependence of the photon current, I photo ,cell Vd Rsh
Series resistance, Rs that represents the internal losses
Shunt resistance, Rsh in parallel with diode to take into
account leakage current to the ground
Diode quality factor, a Fig. 1: Detailed circuit equivalent of a PV cell.

Applying KCL: A. Improvement in PV model

Vd A considerable effort is being put into the development of

I photo ,cell I d ,cell I pv ,cell = 0 (1)
Rsh robust mathematical model for PV with low computational
I pv = I photo , cell I d , cell (2) cost so as to take into account the variation of output with the
weather conditions.
The improvement over (6) that takes into temperature
Where,
dependency of saturation current with current and voltage
qV
I d , cell = I 0, cell exp 1 (3) coefficients K I and KV is given as [16]:
akT
I SC , n + K I T
The complete model of PV module should include the effect I0 = (8)
due to series-parallel combination of each PV cells. Thus the exp (VOC , n + KV T / aVt ) 1
above equation is expressed as:
The authors [16] have proposed an approach for iterative
q (V + I pv Rs ) V + I pv Rs solution to determine the resistance, Rs and Rsh which gives
I pv = I SC I 0 exp 1 (4) the maximum power point on the I-V curve.
aVt Rsh

Where I SC = I photo , cell N p , I 0 = I 0,cell N p , Vt = N s kT q . IV. MODELING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

The photon generated current of the PV cell depends
linearly on the solar radiation and is also determined by the
temperature according to:
G performance does not degrade significantly from full sun shine
I photo ,cell , n (Tn ) = I photo , cell ,0 (T0 ) + K1T 0
Gn
Where, I photo , cell ,0 is the photon generated current at 250 C and
1000W / m 2 , T = T0 Tn .
The temperature dependence of diode saturation current I 0
can be expressed as:
The influence of solar radiation, cell temperature, dust,
shadow and wind is important to estimate the performance
under all weather conditions. The photo current I photo ,cell is
directly proportional to solar radiation (5). In fact, PV cell
(5)
to partial cloud conditions. The variation of saturation current
as a function of temperature is described by (8). The
deposition of dust particles on the glazing surface of PV cells
significantly decreases the performance. Similarly, wind
velocity has an important impact on cell performance drop.
High wind speeds lead to high dust accumulation on a cell,
resulting into sharp decrease performance.
The dust influence on the PV cell can be expressed as:

3
T qEg 1 1 I pv d
I 0 = I 0, n n exp (6) I mp = I mp ,0 (9)
T0 ak Tn T0 I pv

Where, I 0,n is the nominal saturation current given by: An empirical relation that provides the actual PV module
temperature T0 as a function of nominal temperature Tn , solar
I pv Voc , n / Rsh
I 0,n = radiation G0 and wind velocity can be formulated as:
V (7)
exp oc ,n 1
Vt aN s Tn T0
1000 = 0.0712 ( wv ) 2.411( wv ) + 32.96
2
(10)
G
 200
for wind velocity, wv < 18 m / s.
180
Series resistances of PV cells and diodes is temperature
dependent and increases with temperature increase, 160

0.65 % K 1 [17]. Thus it is very necessary to have PV module 140

being modeled with consideration of environmental factors.

Cell power [W]

120

100
600 6
80
500 5
60

Array current [A]

Array power [W]

400 4
40
300 3

20
200 2

100 1 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 0 Cell voltage [V]
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
Array voltage [V] Array voltage [V] (a) P-V characteristics.
9
(a) P-V and I-V characteristics at 250 C.
8

600 6
7
500 5
6

Cell current [A]

Array current [A]
Array power [W]

400 4

300 3
5

200 2 4
100 1
3
0 0
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
Array voltage [V] Array voltage [V] 2

1
(b) P-V and I-V characteristics at 500 C.
0
Fig. 2: Adjusted curves at different temperatures on EN2060. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Cell voltage [V]
(b) I-V characteristics.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 3: Effect of dust deposition on PV module output on KC200GT.
The study in the paper uses the parameters of solar PV
module, EN2060 and Kyocera KC200GT. The parameters are
given in Appendix. Figure 2 shows the adjusted curves of 200
solar PV module EN2060 at two different temperatures. The 180
effect of dust particles on Kyocera KC200GT solar module is
160
shown in Fig. 3. It is noted that open circuit voltage remains
unchanged, while the cell current has decreased noticeably, 140
resulting into reduction in maximum power point too. The
Cell power [W]

120
same study for changes in solar radiation intensity is
100
represented in Fig. 4. In case of lowered solar radiation, there
is slight decrease in open circuit voltage with respect to 80
reduction in value of short circuit current. Next the influence 60
of variation in wind velocity on I-V and P-V characteristics is
shown in Fig. 5. As observed, the variation in wind velocity in 40

the range of 7 to 18 m/sec does not significantly affect the 20

performance of PV module. The maximum power point
0
(MPP) remains almost the same. The determined values of 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Cell voltage [V]
resistances which adjust the PV curve to the experimental one
is given in Table I. The series resistance increases with higher (a) P-V characteristics.
dust factor and shadow effects. On the other hand, its value
decreases on reduced solar radiation. Fig. 4: Effect of solar radiation variation on PV module output.
 9 TABLE I
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
8
ON RESISTANCES IN PV MODEL.
7
(a) Dust effect:
6
Cell current [A]

5 Parameter d= 0.0 d= 0.2 d= 0.4

Rs ,max 0.86728 1.0841 1.4454
4

Rs 0.23 0.28 0.37

3

1 (b) Solar radiation intensity effect:

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Parameter G= 0.0 G=0.2 G=0.4
Cell voltage [V]
Rs ,max 0.8672 1.084 1.4454
(b) I-V characteristics. Rs 0.23 0.21 0.15
Fig. 4: (continuation) Effect of solar radiation
variation on PV module output.
(c) Shadow effect:
200
Parameter G= 0.0 G=0.25 G=0.5
180
Rs ,max 0.8672 1.1563 1.7345
160
Rs 0.23 0.38 0.76
140
Cell power [W]

120

100 (c) Temperature effect:

80
Parameter 250 C 500 C 750 C
60
Rs ,max 0.86728 0.8583 0.8495
40
Rs 0.23 0.41 0.63
20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Cell voltage [V] (d) Wind effect:
9
Parameter 18 m/sec 13 m/sec 10 m/sec
8
Rs ,max 0.862726 0.862361 0.861531
7
Rs 0.32 0.33 0.34
6
Cell current [A]

4
VI. CONCLUSION
3
The paper presented the determination of resistances of PV
2 cell with adjustment of characteristics that correspond to
maximum power point. The influential environmental factors
1 that affect the PV module performance were considered in the
0 study. The study was carried out at parameters of two different
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 commercially available PV modules.
Cell voltage [V]

Fig. 5: Effect of wind variation on PV module output.

VII. APPENDIX

Parameter EN2060 KC200GT

Short-circuit current at 250C 5.45 A 8.21 A Management in 1996 and 1999 respectively. He received Ph.D. degree from
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India in 2006. Currently he serves as
Open circuit voltage at 250C 22.2 V 32.9 V Assistant Professor in department of electrical engineering, Motilal Nehru
Current at MPP 4.95 A 7.61 A National Institute of Technology Allahabad, India. He has interest in field of
Voltage at MPP 17.2 V 26.3 V hydro power plant control, control system and artificial intelligence
applications of power system, and integration of renewable systems.

Marcelo Gradella Villalva was born in Campinas,

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IX. BIOGRAPHIES

Nand Kishor (M 2006) Nand Kishor received BE in

Electrical Engineering and M. Tech in Energy