Artificial Neural Network Approach for More Accurate Solar Cell Electrical Circuit Model

Abstract

The implementation of a neural network especially for improving the accuracy of the electrical equivalent circuit parameters of a solar cell is proposed. These electrical parameters mainly depend on solar irradiation and temperature, but their relationship is nonlinear and cannot be easily expressed by any analytical equation. Therefore, the proposed neural network is trained once by using some measured current–voltage curves, and the equivalent circuit parameters are estimated by only reading the samples of solar irradiation and temperature very quickly. Taking the effect of sunlight irradiance and ambient temperature into consideration, the output current and power characteristics of PV model are simulated and optimized. Finally, the proposed model has been validated with datasheet and experimental data from commercial PV module, Kotak PV-KM0060 (60Wp).The comparison show the higher accuracy of the ANN model than the conventional one diode circuit model for all operating conditions.