International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES 2011), 3-5 Jan 2011

314

N. Pandiarajan and Ranganath Muthu
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
SSN College of Engineering
Kalavakkam -603110, TamilNadu, India
pandiarajann@ssn.edu.in
ranganathm@ssn.edu.in

Abstract This paper presents a unique step-by-step procedure
for the simulation of photovoltaic modules with Matlab/
Simulink. One-diode equivalent circuit is employed in order to
investigate I-V and P-V characteristics of a typical 36 W solar
module. The proposed model is designed with a user-friendly
icons and a dialog box like Simulink block libraries.
Keywords - Photovoltaic module, Matlab/Simulink.
I. NOMENCLATURE
V
pv
is output voltage of a PV module (V)
I
pv
is output current of a PV module (A)
T
r
is the reference temperature = 298 K
T is the module operating temperature in Kelvin
I
ph
is the light generated current in a PV module (A)
I
o
is the PV module saturation current (A)
A = B is an ideality factor = 1.6
k is Boltzman constant = 1.3805 10
-23
J/K
q is Electron charge = 1.6 10
-19
C
R
s
is the series resistance of a PV module
I
SCr
is the PV module short-circuit current at 25
o
C and
1000W/m
2
= 2.55A
K
i
is the short-circuit current temperature co-efficient at
I
SCr
= 0.0017A /
o
C
is the PV module illumination (W/m
2
) = 1000W/m
2

E
go
is the band gap for silicon = 1.1 eV
N
s
is the number of cells connected in series
N
p
is the number of cells connected in parallel
II. INTRODUCTION
Among the renewable energy resources, the energy due to
the photovoltaic (PV) effect can be considered the most
essential and prerequisite sustainable resource because of the
ubiquity, abundance, and sustainability of solar radiant energy.
Regardless of the intermittency of sunlight, solar energy is
widely available and is free. Recently, photovoltaic system is
recognized to be in the forefront in renewable electric power
generation. It can generate direct current electricity without
environmental impact and contamination when exposed to
solar radiation. Being a semiconductor device, the PV system is
static, quiet, free of moving parts, and has little operation and
maintenance costs.
PV module represents the fundamental power conversion
unit of a PV generator system. The output characteristics of a
PV module depend on the solar insolation, the cell temperature
and the output voltage of the PV module. Since PV module has
nonlinear characteristics, it is necessary to model it for the
design and simulation of maximum power point tracking
(MPPT) for PV system applications.
Mathematical modeling of PV module is being continuously
updated to enable researcher to have a better understanding of
its working. [1]- [6]
In this paper, a step-by-step procedure for simulating PV
module with subsystem blocks, with user-friendly icons and
dialog in the same way as Matlab/ Simulink block libraries is
developed. Section III presents the PV module equivalent
circuit and equations for I
pv
, the output current from the PV
module. The reference model presented in section IV provides
data for Solkar make 36 W PV module for simulation. In
section V, the step-by-step modeling procedure of PV module
is presented with simulation results. Finally, brief conclusions
are drawn in Section VI.
III. MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR A
PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULE
A solar cell is basically a p-n junction fabricated in a thin
wafer of semiconductor. The electromagnetic radiation of
solar energy can be directly converted to electricity through
photovoltaic effect. Being exposed to the sunlight, photons
with energy greater then the band-gap energy of the
semiconductor creates some electron-hole pairs proportional to
the incident irradiation.

The equivalent circuit of a PV cell is as shown in Figure 1.
Mathematical Modeling of
Photovoltaic Module with Simulink

International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES 2011), 3-5 Jan 2011
315

Figure 1. PV cell modeled as diode circuit

The current source I
ph
represents the cell photocurrent. R
sh

and R
s
are the intrinsic shunt and series resistances of the cell,
respectively. Usually the value of R
sh
is very large and that of
R
s
is very small, hence they may be neglected to simplify the
analysis.

PV cells are grouped in larger units called PV modules
which are further interconnected in a parallel-series
configuration to form PV arrays.

The photovoltaic panel can be modeled mathematically as
given in equations (1)- (4) [3] [5].

Module photo-current:
1000 / * )] 298 ( [ + = T K I I
i SCr ph
(1)

Module reverse saturation current - I
rs
:
] 1 ) / /[exp( = kAT N qV I I
S OC SCr rs
(2)

The module saturation current I
0
varies with the cell
temperature, which is given by
]
1 1
*
exp[ ] [
0 3
0

=
T T Bk
E q
T
T
I I
r
g
r
rs
(3)

The current output of PV module is
] 1
) ( *
[exp * *
0

+
=
AkT N
R I V q
I N I N I
S
s PV PV
P ph P PV

(4)
Where V
pv
= V
oc
, N
p
= 1 and N
s
= 36

IV. REFERENCE MODEL
Solkar make 36 W PV module is taken as the reference
module for simulation and the name-plate details are given in
Table 1.
TABLE 1: ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS DATA OF
SOLKAR 36W PV MODULE
Rated Power 37.08 W
Voltage at Maximum power (Vmp) 16.56 V
Current at Maximum power ( Imp) 2.25 A
Open circuit voltage ( VOC) 21.24 V
Short circuit current ( ISCr) 2.55 A
Total number of cells in series (Ns) 36
Total number of cells in parallel (Np) 1
Note: The electrical specifications are under test conditions of irradiance of 1
kW/m
2
, spectrum of 1.5 air mass and cell temperature of 25
o
C.
V. STEP BY STEP PROCEDURE FOR SIMULINK
MODELING OF PV MODULE
A model of PV module with moderate complexity that
includes the temperature independence of the photocurrent
source, the saturation current of the diode, and a series
resistance is considered based on the Shockley diode equation.
Being illuminated with radiation of sunlight, PV cell
converts part of the photovoltaic potential directly into
electricity with both I-V and P-V output characteristics.
Using the equations given in section III, simulink modeling
is done in the following steps
A. Step 1
Subsystem 1 is shown in Figure 1. This model converts
the module operating temperature given in degrees Celsius to
Kelvin.

Figure 2. Subsystem 1.

Figure 3 gives the circuit under subsystem 1.

Figure 3. Circuit under subsystem 1
B. Step 2
Subsystem 2 is shown in Figure 4. This model takes
following inputs.
Insolation/ Irradiation (G / 1000) 1 kW/ m
2
= 1.
Module operating temperature T
aK
= 30 to 70
o
C
Module reference temperature T
rK
= 25
o
C.
Short circuit current (I
SC
) at reference temp. = 2.55A

This model calculates the short circuit current ( I
SC
) at given
operating temperature. Figure 5 gives the circuit under
subsystem.
International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES 2011), 3-5 Jan 2011
316


Figure 5. Circuit under subsystem 2
C. Step 3
Subsystem 3 is shown in Figure 6. This model takes short
circuit current I
SC
at reference temp. = 2.55A and Module
reference temperature T
rK
= 25
o
C as input.

Figure 6. Subsystem 3
Using equation 2, the reverse saturation current of the diode is
calculated in subsystem 3. Figure 7 gives the circuit under
subsystem 3.

Figure 7. Circuit under subsystem 3
D. Step 4
Subsystem 4 is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Subsystem 4.

This model takes reverse saturation current I
rs
, Module
reference temperature T
rK
= 25
0
C and Module operating
temperature T
aK
as input and calculates module saturation
current. Figure 9 gives the circuit under subsystem 4.


Figure 9. Circuit under subsystem 4
E. Step 5
Subsystem 5 is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Subsystem 5.
This model takes operating temperature in Kelvin T
aK
and
calculates the product NsAkT, the denominator of the
exponential function in equation (4). Figure 11 gives the
circuit under subsystem 5.

Figure 11. Circuit under subsystem 5
F. Step 6
Subsystem 6 is shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12. Subsystem 6.

This model executes the function given by the equation (4).
The following function equation is used.
I
PV
= u(3)-u(4)*(exp((u(2)*(u(1)+u(6)))/(u(5)))-1)
Figure 13 gives the circuit under subsystem 6.
International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES 2011), 3-5 Jan 2011
317

Figure 13. Circuit under subsystem 6
G. Step 7
All above six models are interconnected as given in Figure
14.

Figure 14. Interconnection of all six subsystems

The final model is shown in Figure 15. The workspace is
added to measure I
pv
, V
pv
, P
pv
in this model. The time tout is
stored in workspace with scope model can be used to plot
graph.

Figure 15. Simulink model of PV module

The final model takes irradiation, operating temperature in
Celsius and module voltage as input and gives the output
current I
pv
and output voltage V
pv
.
Matlab code for plotting XY graph is given below.
plot (Vpv,Ipv)
plot (Vpv, Ppv)
The code for plotting scope signals is
plot(tout,Ipv)
H. Performance Estimation
With the developed model, the PV module characteristic is
estimated as follows.

(i) I-V and P-V characteristics under varying
irradiation with constant temperature are obtained
as shown in Figures 16(a) to 16(d).
1. In Figure 16(a), the input irradiation is shown.
Between 0 and 1 s, the irradiation is 200W/m
2
,
between 1 and 2 s it is 600 W/m
,
while from 2 s
onwards it is 1000W/m
2
.

Figure 16(a). Input Time varying irradiation
2. In Figure 16(b), the input temperature is shown
which is constant at 25
0
C.

Figure 16(b). Input - Constant temperature 25
0
C
3. The I-V output characteristics of PV module
with varying irradiation at constant temperature
are shown in Figure 16(c).

Figure 16(c). Output I-V characteristics with varying
irradiation
4. The P-V output characteristics of PV module
with varying irradiation at constant temperature
are shown in Figure 16(d).
International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES 2011), 3-5 Jan 2011
318

Figure 16(d). Output P-V characteristics with varying
irradiation

The above graphs are user friendly.
When the irradiation increases,
The current output increases
The voltage output also increases. This
results in net increase in power output with
increase in irradiation at constant
temperature.
(ii) I-V and P-V Characteristics under constant
irradiation with varying temperature are obtained in
Figures 17(a) to 17(d).
1. In Figure 17(a) the time varying temperature
signal is shown. Between 0 and 1 second, the
temperature of 25
0
C is applied and it is
increased to 50 and 75
0
C.

Figure 17(a). Input Time varying temperature
2. The I-V output characteristics of PV module
with varying temperature at constant irradiation
of 1000W/m
2
are shown in Figure 17(b).

Figure 17(b). Output I-V characteristics with varying
temperature
3. The P-V output characteristics of PV module
with varying temperature at constant irradiation
are shown in Figure 17(c).

Figure 17(c). Output P-V characteristics with varying
temperature
4. The output power vs. time of PV module is
shown in Figure 17(d). The power output
reduces with increase in temperature at
constant irradiation.

Figure 17(d). Output power vs. time
When the operating temperature increases,
The current output increases marginally
But the voltage output decreases drastically
Results in net reduction in power output
with rise in temperature
The results are verified and found matching with the
manufacturers data sheet output curves.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The step-by-step procedure for modeling the PV module is
presented. This mathematical modeling procedure serves as an
aid to induce more people into photovoltaic research and gain a
closer understanding of I-V and P-V characteristics of PV
module.
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International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES 2011), 3-5 Jan 2011
319
[4] Jee-Hoon Jung, and S. Ahmed, Model Construction of Single
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