Computer Simulation Based Study of Photovoltaic Cells/Modules and their Experimental Verification

A computer simulation based study of photovolatics cells/ modules using circuit simulator PSpice is presented in this paper. The PSpice is an analogoue/digital circuit simulator which calculates voltage and current in a circuit under variety of different circumstances. This feature of PSpice is used to simulate a circuit based model for PV cells/ modules and then to conduct behavioral study under varying conditions of solar insolation including shading effect, temperature, diode model parameters, series and shunt resistance etc. The study is very helpful in clearly outlining the principles and the intricacies of PV cells/modules and may surely be used to verify impact of different topologies and control techniques on the performance of different types of PV system. To put the simulation study on firm footing an experimental verification is also carried out in the Lab by developing a PC based data acquisition system, which is also briefly discussed here as subsidiary.