Investigation of cloudless solar radiation with PV module employing Matlab-Simulink

This paper focuses an novel approach on the prediction of Voltage-Current(V-I) characteristics of a Photovoltaic panel under varying weather conditions and also the modelling of hourly cloudless solar radiation to provide the insolation on a PV module of any orientation, located at any site. The empirical model developed in this study uses standard specifications together with actual solar radiation and cell temperature. This proposed work develops a Matlab-Simulink block to generate solar radiation at any location and for any time of the year. A new model for Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics and Maximum Power operation of a Photovoltaic (PV) module is also presented which aims to model the effect on I-V and P-V curves of varying climatic conditions. Moreover, this model has been implemented using the Matlab-Simulink and is used to investigate the effect of meteorological conditions on the performance of a PV module generator. Thus the combined model of cloudless solar radiation and the photovoltaic module provide a tool that may be loaded in the library for analysis purpose. It is found that the predicted solar radiation strongly agrees with the experimental data.