Solar PV System

A H Chowdhury, PhD
EEE, BUET
October 2017
 Structures of Photovoltaic Cells
• Energy of absorbed light transferred to
electrons in atoms of PV cell
• “Built-in electric field” drive the
current
• “n-type” silicon  abundance of
electrons, -ve electrical charge
• “p-type” silicon  abundance of
“holes,” +ve electrical charge
• n-and p-type silicon come into contact
 Excess electrons move from n-type
to p-type
 Result in build up of positive charge
along n-type side and of negative
charge along p-type side
 Behave like a battery, creating an
p–n junction of the PV cell
electric field at p/n junction
Cell, Module and Array
 PV System Components

Typical Solar energy system

 PV System Components contd.
• PV modules  connected in series or in parallel
• Sun tracking system
– Sun sensors or photodiodes
– Microcontroller system
– Position motors to control horizontal and vertical motion of panels
• Electrical maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system
– Due to voltage–current and current–power characteristics of PV array
maximum power point (MPP) vary based on operating current and
voltage
– Can be done through a DC/DC converter
• Battery pack used as energy buffer
• DC/AC inverter and grid interface
 Equivalent Electrical Circuit
One-diode model
• Net output current IPV

• Ideality factor α varies between 1 and

2 for different applications and
operations
• Typical value of Rs for a high quality
Model for a single solar cell
one square inch silicon cell  0.05 to
0.10 ohm
• By taking output current as zero, open-
circuit voltage can be obtained as
 Equivalent Electrical Circuit contd.
• Cell operating point determined by intersection
I–V characteristic of solar cell for
of cell I–V characteristic and load I–V
an ambient irradiation Ga at a
characteristic curves certain fixed cell temperature Tc
 For a resistive load, load characteristic is a straight
line with a slope of I/V = 1/R
• Power delivered to load depends on resistance
value of load
• However,
 If R is small, cell operates in MN region of the
curve, cell behaves as a constant current source
 If R is large, cell operates on PS region of the curve,
cell behaves similar to a constant voltage source
• Maximum efficiency  ratio between maximum
Ga - irradiation
power (MPP) and incident light power
A - cell area
 Open Circuit Voltage and Short Circuit Current

• Short-circuit current Isc measured by shorting output terminals, and

measuring terminal current under full illumination
 Ignoring small diode and ground-leakage currents under zero-terminal
voltage, short-circuit current under this condition is photocurrent IL

• Maximum photo-voltage produced under open-circuit voltage

• Diode-saturation current determined experimentally by applying

voltage Voc in dark and measuring current going into cell

• This current is often called dark current or reverse diode-saturation

current
 i-v and p-v Curves
• External voltage in
reverse direction  Isc  current with output
current remains flat, terminals shorted (zero voltage) Cell works like a constant
power is absorbed by current source
cell
• Beyond a certain Current drops
negative voltage, rapidly with a small
junction breaks down, rise in voltage
and current rises to a
high value
Cell works like a
• In the dark, constant voltage
current is zero for source
voltage up to Voc  voltage with output
breakdown voltage terminals open (zero current)

i-v characteristic of a pv module in sunlight and in dark

 i-v and p-v Curves contd.

• Power output of panel is product of

voltage and current outputs
• Cell
Cell produces
produces maximum
maximum power
power at at voltage
voltage
corresponding
corresponding toto knee
knee point
point of
of i-v
i-v curve
curve
• pv power circuits are designed such that
modules operate closed to knee point
• PV modules are modeled approximately as
a constant current source in electrical
analysis of system

Cell produces no power at zero

voltage or zero current
 i-v and p-v Curves contd.
• Air mass zero (AM0)  condition in outer
Curves are at AM1.5 (air mass 1.5)
space, where solar radiation is 1,350
watts/m2
• AM1  ideal earth condition in pure air
on a clear dry noon when sunlight
experiences least resistance to reach earth
• On a typical day with average humidity
and pollution air is AM1.5
• Solar power impinging a normal surface
on a bright day with AM1.5 is about 1,000
watts/m2
• On a cloudy day, it would be low
• 500 watts/m2 solar intensity is another i-v characteristic of a 22-watts panel
reference condition industry uses to under two solar illumination intensities,
report i-v curves 1,000 watts/m2 and 500 watts/m2
 i-v and p-v Curves contd.

• Photoconversion efficiency of pv cell

 i-v and p-v Curves contd.

(a) Series and (b) parallel connection of identical cells

 Array Design

• Major factors influencing the electrical design of solar array:

– sun intensity

– sun angle

– load matching for maximum power

– operating temperature
 Array Design contd.

Sun Intensity
• Magnitude of photocurrent maximum
under full bright sun (1.0 sun)
• On partially sunny day, photocurrent
diminishes in direct proportion to sun
intensity
• i-v characteristic shifts downward at a
lower sun intensity
• On cloudy day short circuit current
decreases significantly, but reduction
in open-circuit voltage is small
 Array Design contd.

• Photoconversion efficiency of
cell insensitive to solar
radiation
• Efficiency practically same at
500 watts/m2 and 1,000
watts/m2
• Conversion efficiency same on
a bright sunny day and a
cloudy day
• Lower power output on a Photoconversion efficiency
cloudy day only because of
lower solar energy impinging
cell
 Array Design contd.

Sun Angle θ
• Cell output current given by
I0  current with normal sun (reference)
θ  angle of sunline measured from normal
• This law holds well for sun angles ranging from 0 to about 50°
• Beyond 50°, electrical output deviates significantly from cosine law, and
cell generates no power beyond 85°
• Actual power-angle curve of pv cell called Kelly cosine curve
 Array Design - Shadow Effect contd.
Shadow Effect
• Array consist of parallel strings of series-connected cells
• A cell in a long-series string completely shadowed  loses photovoltage,
but still must carry string current
• No generated voltage  cell acts as a load  I2R loss and heat
• Remaining cells in string must work at higher voltage to make up loss of
shadowed cell voltage
• Higher voltage in healthy cells means lower string current as per i-v
characteristic of string
• Current loss is not proportional to shadowed area, and may go unnoticed
for mild shadow on a small area
• If more cells are shadowed beyond critical limit, i-v curve gets below
operating voltage of string, making string current fall to zero, losing all
power of string
 Array Design - Shadow Effect contd.

• Eliminate loss of string

due to shadow effect
– Subdivide circuit length in
several segments with
bypass diodes
• Diode across shadowed
segment bypasses only
that segment of string
– Causes a proportionate loss
of string voltage and
current, without losing
whole string power
Array Design - Shadow Effect contd.

• Configuration (a) more resistible to shading conditions

and available to produce more power
• Array subject to partial shading
• string of cells gets out of order in (b)
• only affected cells get out of order in (a)
Array Design - Shadow Effect contd.

(a) (b)

I–V curves of a PV cell under different shading factors (a) behave

just like the PV cells under different irradiation conditions (b)
 Array Design - Shadow Effect contd.

• p–v curve also affected in shaded

condition
• Under local shading  two different
power peak values for two different
voltage values exist
• Many MPPT methods track a local
peak and may not find the global
value
• Can be important under local shading
conditions
• Shading effect should be considered in
calculating MPP
 Array Design contd.
Temperature Effect
• With increasing temperature, Isc increases, Voc
decreases
Hot
• Let, I0 and V0 are short-circuit current and
Cold
open-circuit voltage at reference temperature
T, and α and β are their respective
temperature coefficients
• If operating temperature increased by ΔΤ, then
new current and voltage given by:
 Array Design contd.

• Operating current and voltage change approximately in same

proportion as Isc and Voc, respectively
• So, new power:

ignoring a small term

• For typical single crystal silicon cells
 α = 500 per °C and β = 5 per °C
• Power is therefore:
 Array Design contd.

 Indicates that for every °C rise in operating temperature above

reference temperature, silicon cell power output decreases by 0.45%
• Since increase in current much less than decrease in voltage,
net effect is decrease in power at high operating
temperatures
• Maximum power available at lower
temperature is higher than that at
higher temperature

• Cold temperature better for pv cell,

as it generates more power
 Array Design contd.

• Two Pmax points not at same

voltage
• To extract maximum power
at all temperatures, pv
system must be designed
such that
– module output voltage can
increase to V2 for capturing
Pmax2 at lower temperature
and can decrease to V1 for
capturing Pmax1 at higher
temperature
 Electrical Load Matching
• Operating point of any power
system is intersection of source
line and load line
• pv source supplying power to
load R1  operates at point a1
• Load resistance increases to R2
or R3 operating point a2 or a3
• Maximum power extracted
from module when load
resistance is R2
• Load matching with source
necessary for maximum power
extraction
 Electrical Load Matching contd.

Operation with constant power loads

• Constant power load line has two points of

intersection with source line  b1 and b2

• Only b1/b2 (?) stable  any perturbation from

it will generate a restoring power to take
operation back to b1/b2 (?)

• Necessary condition for electrical operating

stability of solar array

Operation with constant

power loads
 Sun Tracking

• Sun tracking can increase energy yield up to 40% over the

year compared to fixed-array design

• Two types of sun trackers:

 one-axis tracker  follows the sun from east to west

 two-axis tracker  tracks the sun from east to west during day, and
from north to south during seasons of year
 Sun Tracking contd.
• Two pv cells mounted on two 45° wedges, connected
differentially in series through an actuator motor
• Perfectly normal sun  current on both cells equal 
net current in motor zero  array stays put
• Array not normal to sun  sun angles on two cells
different  net current in motor not zero  array
moves
 Peak Power Point Operation
• Suntracker does not guarantee maximum power
output from module
• Module must operate electrically at a certain
voltage corresponding to peak power point
• If array operating at voltage V and current I on i-v
curve, power generation is P = V · I watts
• If operation moves away from the above point,
such that current is now I+ΔI, and voltage is V+ΔV,
new power is:

• ΔP should be zero at peak power point, which

necessarily lies on a locally flat neighborhood
• Therefore, at peak power point, above expression
in limit becomes as follows:
 Peak Power Point Operation contd.
dV/dI  dynamic impedance of source
V/I  static impedance

Three electrical methods of extracting peak power

(1) A small signal current periodically injected into array bus to
measure dynamic- and static- bus impedances (Zd = dV/dI, Zs = V/I)
• Operating voltage is then increased or decreased until Zd = – Zs
• At this point, maximum power is extracted from source
(2) Operating voltage increased as long as dP/dV positive
• That is, voltage increased as long as we get more power
• If dP/dV is sensed negative, operating voltage is decreased
• Voltage is kept put if dP/dV near zero within a preset dead band
 Peak Power Point Operation contd.

(3) For most pv cells, ratio of voltage at maximum power point to open
circuit voltage (i.e., Vmp/Voc) approximately constant  say K
 For high-quality crystalline silicon cells K = 0.72

• An unloaded cell kept in same environment as power-producing

module  its open circuit voltage continuously measured

• Operating voltage of power-producing array is then set at K·Voc ,

which will produce maximum power
 Power Electronic Interfaces for Grid-Connected
PV Systems
• Power electronic interfaces for grid-connected PV systems can
be classified into two main criteria:
– classification based on inverter utilization
– classification based on converter stage and module configurations
• Based on inverter utilization, the topologies are
– Centralized inverter system
– String inverter system
– Multistring inverter system.
• Based on number of converter stages and number of
modules, topologies are
– Two-stage single module
– Single-stage multimodule
– Single-stage multilevel
– Two-stage multimodule
Power Electronic Interfaces for Grid-Connected
PV Systems
Power Electronic Interfaces for Grid-Connected
PV Systems
Centralized inverter topology String inverter topology
Power Electronic Interfaces for Grid-Connected
PV Systems
Multistage inverter topology
 MPPT Techniques

• Incremental Conductance-Based MPPT Technique

• Perturb and Observe-Based MPPT

• MPPT Controller-Based on Linearized I–V Characteristics

 MPPT Techniques contd.
Incremental Conductance-Based MPPT Technique

Operating point trajectory of

incremental conductance–based MPPT

Incremental conductance
algorithm flow-chart diagram
 MPPT Techniques contd.

Perturb and Observe-Based MPPT

A typical I–P curve of a PV array

Flow diagram of the P&O-based MPPT method