In this paper, an efficient testing system for measuring a PV moduleââ?¬â?¢s I-V curve is proposed.\nThe proposed system is based on a controlled DC-DC boost converter. The advantage of using\na DC-DC converter is that this converter is typically used in PV systems to track the maximum power\npoint and to control the charging of the battery. Consequently, this device is utilized for I-V curve\nextraction without the need for further external devices. The I-V curve is extracted by modifying\nthe duty cycle of the triggering signal of the boost converterââ?¬â?¢s switch. The proposed system has\nbeen tested experimentally using a 120 Wp PV module. The results show that the proposed system\ncan successfully extract I-V curves of PV module. Notably, the performance of the tested module,\nas measured by this studyââ?¬â?¢s system as well as with a reference system, was found to be in the range\nof 61ââ?¬â??67% of the performance given in the datasheet. Hence, this result highlights the importance of\nconsidering a measurement of the actual performance of PV modules when designing any PV system\nso as to avoid an undersized system. The proposed I-V testing system can be used as a simple tool to\ndiagnose any shortages or low performance problems in PV system.
Loading....