Solar irradiance emulator based on DC power supply for photovoltaic panels

It is difficult issue for Photovoltaic (PV) studies to create different types of solar irradiance for PV panels because of various temperature and weather conditions. This paper proposes a solar irradiance emulator based on dc power supply. The proposed emulator allows for building the desired radiation in the photovoltaic panel tests. It is particularly useful to test PV converters such as inverters and maximum power point trackers. The proposed solar irradiance emulator only requires a DC power supply that is available in each laboratory and an additional resistance. The additional resistance is needed in order to regulate I-V curve according to I-V curve of the real PV panel. The DC power supply is used as a current source by operated it in constant current mode. By simply changing the constant current value of DC power supply within the emulator, a new irradiance can be simulated without the solar irradiance or purchasing a PV simulator. Hence, any desired I-V curve can be emulated by the proposed system with low cost because requiring a few basic components available for all laboratories. The proposed emulator is not required any extra laboratory components because it is realized with dc power supply and resistance. The I-V curves of PV panel are obtained for real solar irradiance and solar irradiance emulator with and without additional resistance and compared to each other.