Effect of solar irradiance and temperature on photovoltaic module electrical characteristics

Abstract

The electrical characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) module are dependent on solar irradiance and temperature. It consists of short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum power, fill factor and efficiency. This paper presents the effect of solar irradiance and temperature on PV module electrical characteristics. A mathematical modeling was developed to characterize the electrical characteristics of PV module using PSpice. A 60 W, 21 V, BP SX 60 multi-crystalline silicon PV module was used in this paper. Under constant solar irradiance and difference temperature or inversely were tested to the PV module, its electrical characteristics shown. The result shows that if the solar irradiance is constant and the temperature increase will cause the open circuit voltage, the maximum power and the efficiency decrease, if the temperature constant and solar irradiance increase will cause the short circuit current, the open circuit voltage, the maximum power and the efficiency increase.