Parameter extraction of solar cell models using improved shuffled complex evolution algorithm

The extraction of solar cell model parameters is of great value for diagnosing the ageing fault of solar cells and predicting the life of solar cells. Aiming at improving the accuracy of solar cell parameter extraction, quantum theory is introduced to enhance the algorithm's global search ability and local mining ability of whale optimization algorithm. The extraction of solar cell model parameters are carried out with the whale optimization algorithm and the Harris Eagle algorithm at the same time. The comparison and results proved that the QWOA(quantum whale optimization algorithm) has high accuracy and rapidity in the extraction of solar cell model parameters.

The modeling of a solar PV system is challenging due to its nonlinear current vs. voltage characteristics. Although various optimization techniques have been applied for the parameter estimation of the solar PV system, there is still a scope to attain the best-optimized results. This paper uses a new meta-heuristic optimization algorithm and a classical technique named Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (AFT) with Newton Rapson (NR) method to estimate solar PV system parameters. The well-known story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves has inspired the AFT. Besides, the inappropriate objective function used in earlier research to extract parameters from solar PV models is recognized. The experimental findings demonstrate that the suggested approach performs better when compared to state-of-the-art algorithms. Between the measured data and the computed data for AFT, the root mean square error values for the five PV models, such as single diode model (SDM), double diode model (DDM), Photowatt-PWP201, STM6-40/36, and STP6-120/36, are respectively 7.72 × 10−04 ± 6.121 × 10−16, 7.412 × 10−04 ± 9.52 × 10−06, 2.052 × 10−03 ± 3.05 × 10−17, 0.001721922 ± 2.19 × 10−17, and 0.014450817 ± 3.42 × 10−16. In terms of accuracy, the obtained results indicate that the proposed AFT algorithm is more efficient than the other optimization techniques available in the literature. The excellent correlation between the estimated parameters from characteristic curves and observed data for SDM, DDM, Photowatt-PWP201, STM6-40/36, and STP6-120/36 demonstrates that the proposed AFT is a potential option among the techniques available in the literature. The Friedman and Wilcoxon tests have been used to assess the statistical validity of the proposed algorithms.

Among all renewable energy sources, solar cells are considered the most popular solution for a clean source of energy and have a wide range of applications from few watts to Megawatt industrial and domestic loads. Building a precise mathematical model based on nonlinear equations for solar cells as well as photovoltaic (PV) modules is an essential issue for reasonable performance assessment, control and optimal operation of PV energy systems. In the current study, a novel optimization algorithm, Tree Growth Algorithm (TGA), is applied for accurate and efficient extraction of the unknown solar cell and PV module parameters. TGA is applied for estimating the unidentified parameters of PV models. Single diode model (SDM), double diode model (DDM) and three diode model (TDM) are investigated in the mathematical models of both solar cells and PV modules. The obtained results from the application of TGA to achieve this objective are compared with different algorithms reported in the literature. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm of TGA superior to other reported methods. The good matching of the I-V characteristic curve of the computed parameters with those of the measured data from the manufacturer’s PV modules/cells datasheet proved that the proposed TGA may function as a competitor to the methods provided in literature for parameters’ identification of PV of solar cells.

In this paper the modelling of the photovoltaic module has been applied through the experimental flash test data of industrial photovoltaic module. The theoretical background of the single diode model and the double diode model of the photovoltaic module have been described and similar procedures for the extraction and estimation of the unknown parameters have been proposed. The Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm has been used to minimize objective function as a set of five nonlinear equations that were written for five equilibrium points on the current-voltage curve of the photovoltaic module. The single diode model and double diode model have then been simulated with the estimated unknown parameters and a very good matching between flash test data and a simulation data.

This paper presents a critical analysis of the meta-heuristic techniques used in various researches on the optimisation of photovoltaic (PV) parameters, which involves the use of different algorithms in order to extract and improve these parameters from the single diode model (SDM), double diode model (DDM) and three diode model (TDM) respectively. The modelling parameters such as the photon current, saturation current, the series and parallel resistances are investigated to understand the optimum value. It will also equate the results of datasheet values from PV manufactures with experiment values obtained from PV module measurements. The meta-heuristics techniques to be considered include genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimisation (PSO), harmony search (HS), flower pollination algorithm (FPA), simulated annealing (SA), teaching learning based optimisation (TLBO), and other different hybrid solutions to optimize the convergence speed. Root mean square error (RMSE) is used as a performance indicator of each meta-heuristic technique. These optimisation techniques are utilised in extracting the parameters of a 5 W polycrystalline panel at standard testing conditions. The results presented in this paper compared the performances of the mentioned meta-heuristics on the single, double and triple diode models respectively.

Extracting accurate values for involved unknown parameters of solar photovoltaic (PV) models is very important for modeling PV systems. In recent years, the use of metaheuristic algorithms for this problem tends to be more popular and vibrant due to their efficacy in solving highly nonlinear multimodal optimization problems. The whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is a relatively new and competitive metaheuristic algorithm. In this paper, an improved variant of WOA referred to as MCSWOA, is proposed to the parameter extraction of PV models. In MCSWOA, three improved components are integrated together: (i) Two modified search strategies named WOA/rand/1 and WOA/current-to-best/1 inspired by differential evolution are designed to balance the exploration and exploitation; (ii) a crossover operator based on the above modified search strategies is introduced to meet the search-oriented requirements of different dimensions; and (iii) a selection operator instead of the “generate-and-go” operator used in the original WOA is employed to prevent the population quality getting worse and thus to guarantee the consistency of evolutionary direction. The proposed MCSWOA is applied to five PV types. Both single diode and double diode models are used to model these five PV types. The good performance of MCSWOA is verified by various algorithms.

Clean energy resources have become a worldwide concern, especially photovoltaic (PV) energy. Solar cell modeling is considered one of the most important issues in this field. In this article, an improvement for the search steps of the bald eagle search algorithm is proposed. The improved bald eagle search (IBES) was applied to estimate more accurate PV model parameters. The IBES algorithm was applied for conventional single, double, and triple PV models, in addition to modified single, double, and triple PV models. The IBES was evaluated by comparing its results with the original BES through 15 benchmark functions. For a more comprehensive analysis, two evaluation tasks were performed. In the first task, the IBES results were compared with the original BES for parameter estimation of original and modified tribe diode models. In the second task, the IBES results were compared with different recent algorithms for parameter estimation of original and modified single and double diode models. All tasks were performed using the real data for a commercial silicon solar cell (R.T.C. France). From the results, it can be concluded that the results of the modified models were more accurate than the conventional PV models, and the IBES behavior was better than the original BES and other compared algorithms.

In this paper, the explicit equation of the single diode model (SDM) expressed by the Lambert W function was reduced to its simplified form through variable replacement; then the simplified explicit equation was combined with an intelligent optimization algorithm to estimate the SDM parameters of solar cells and PV modules. To evaluate the parameter extraction performance of the new method, eight typical intelligent optimization algorithms were combined with the implicit, explicit, and simplified explicit equation to extract the SDM parameters of a solar cell and three types of PV modules. The results show that the new method not only improves the accuracy of parameter extraction but also enhances the robustness and convergence speed. Most importantly, the new method can nearly improve the parameter extraction accuracy of a poor-performing algorithm in traditional methods to the level of other well-performing algorithms without enhancing the algorithm itself. In a word, this study offers a new choice for a more accurate and reliable extraction of SDM parameters from both solar cells and PV modules.

Parameters identification of photovoltaic solar cells using FIPSO-SQP algorithm

This research paper systematically reviewed and investigated single diode model and double diode model of a solar photovoltaic systems in terms of accuracy, differences under major unknown PV parameters, different optimization and fabrication. This research paper reviewed the differences and the similarities between the single diode model and double diode model. From the review, it was clear that single diode model has less computation time and number of unknown parameters compared to double diode model. The double diode model on its own superiority is more accurate under solar shading condition effect than single diode model but single diode model performs better under high insolation levels. None of the two models is superior than the other but the solar photovoltaic modelers/installers should bear the solar irradiance of the environment before installation

This paper compares two methods for extraction of photovoltaic (PV) module parameters. The numerical method called Gauss-Seidel, used on the single diode model, and the analytical method applied on the double diode model. Both methods are based on the manufacturer’s datasheets to extract the five parameters. These methods are validated using monocrystalline PV module. The modified mathematical modeling equations are classified into models 1 to 5. Only model 2 and model 4 are used for the analytical method. Each model is based on the different combinations of the ideality factor, the series resistance, photocurrent and saturation current plotted under varying temperature and irradiance. The accuracy of PV module based on both methods is evaluated by Absolute Error (AE). In order to evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed methods, the equations were implemented in the MATLAB/Simulink environment and the results obtained are compared with extracted experimental data.

Ranking teaching–learning-based optimization algorithm to estimate the parameters of solar models

It is important to investigate the long-term performances of an accurate modeling of photovoltaic (PV) systems, especially in the prediction of output power, with single and double diode models as the configurations mainly applied for this purpose. However, the use of one configuration to model PV panel limits the accuracy of its predicted performances. This paper proposes a new hybrid approach based on classification algorithms in the machine learning framework that combines both single and double models in accordance with the climatic condition in order to predict the output PV power with higher accuracy. Classification trees, k-nearest neighbor, discriminant analysis, Naïve Bayes, support vector machines (SVMs), and classification ensembles algorithms are investigated to estimate the PV power under different conditions of the Mediterranean climate. The examined classification algorithms demonstrate that the double diode model seems more relevant for low and medium levels of solar irradiance and temperature. Accuracy between 86% and 87.5% demonstrates the high potential of the classification techniques in the PV power predicting. The normalized mean absolute error up to 1.5% ensures errors less than those obtained from both single-diode and double-diode equivalent-circuit models with a reduction up to 0.15%. The proposed hybrid approach using machine learning (ML) algorithms could be a key solution for photovoltaic and industrial software to predict more accurate performances.

This book chapter begins with an overview of three equivalent circuit models of solar PV such as single diode model (SDM), double diode model (DDM) and three diode model (TDM), as well as critical comparison and analysis of each model. In addition, the extraction and optimisation of the solar PV parameters using various Evolutionary algorithms are discussed in this chapter. The modelling parameters such as the photon current, saturation current, the series and parallel resistances are investigated to understand the optimum value. It will compare the results of datasheet values from PV manufacturers with experimental values obtained from PV module measurements. Furthermore, the meta-heuristics techniques include genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimisation (PSO), harmony search (HS), flower pollination algorithm (FPA), simulated annealing (SA), teaching learning-based optimisation (TLBO), and others will also be investigated.

Precision parameter extraction for Multi-Junction Solar Cells (MJSCs) is paramount for reliable simulation and performance optimisation, but is critically hindered by the models’ severe non-linearity and multi-modality. This research suggests implementing the Bonobo Optimiser Algorithm (BOA) to overcome this challenge. The core novelty lies in BOA's first application of high-precision parameter estimation for MJSCs, based on the Single Diode Model (SDM), Double Diode Model (DDM), and Triple Diode Model (TDM). Additionally, statistical validation using ANOVA and the Friedman test confirms the effectiveness of the BOA for parameter estimation of the Thin triple-junction CTJ30 and multi-junction solar cell, as well as the MJSC, under various operating temperature conditions (41.5 °C, 51.3 °C, and 61.6 °C). Minimisation of RMSE is an objective function to optimise parameters. Statistical analysis of 30-run simulations confirms BOA’s superior consistency and minimal variance. Critical findings show that for the CTJ30 cell, BOA attained a consistent best RMSE of 2.513060E-03, 2.510171E-03 and 2.510387E-03 across SDM, DDM, and TDM, respectively. For MJSC datasets at 41.5 °C, BOA achieved the best RMSE values of 4.361990E-05 for the SDM, 2.768602E-05 for the DDM, and 2.827875E-05 for the TDM. At 51.3 °C, the best RMSE values were 5.434700E-05 for the SDM, 2.641600E-05 for the DDM, and 2.347326E-05 for the TDM. At 61.6 °C, the best RMSE values of 1.657126E-05, 2.693035E-05 and 1.556626E-05 for the SDM, DDM, and TDM, respectively, demonstrate exceptional precision. Empirical investigations and comparisons with the most recent state-of-the-art algorithms and conventional algorithms are used for validation and justification. Statistical ANOVA and the Friedman test validation and comparison investigations demonstrate the suggested BOA precision and consistency, which may replicate experimental datasets with minimal statistical lapses and reduced variance. A comprehensive statistical analysis of the CTJ30 and MJSCs PV datasets demonstrates that the proposed BOA is reliable in assisting quality control in high-efficiency photovoltaic systems.