Proc.

of the IEEE International Conference on Smart Instrumentation, Measurement and Applications (ICSIMA)
26-27 November 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Solar Irradiance Estimation Based on Photovoltaic

Module Short Circuit Current Measurement
Rodney H.G. Tan#1, Priscilla L.J. Tai#2, V. H. Mok#3
#1-3
Department of Engineering, UCSI University
No.1, Jalan Menara Gading, UCSI Heights, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1
rodneyt@ucsiuniversity.edu.my
2
priscillatai9@hotmail.com
3
jimmymok@ucsiuniversity.edu.my

Abstract— This paper presents the estimation method of solar acquisition hardware to computes and records the
irradiance in W/m2 based on the short circuit current output measurement. The installation of the pyranometer must be
produce by the photovoltaic module. The proposed solar place similar to the photovoltaic module facing angle in order
irradiance estimation method is derived using photovoltaic to provide accurate measurement. Therefore, the additional
mathematical model. Therefore, photovoltaic module modeling is costs incur for the installation and maintenance of pyranometer
required to develop the proposed estimation method. The is relatively high. On the other hand reference solar cell incurs
modeling includes the identification of photovoltaic module diode a lower cost, but with more complicated measurement setup
ideality factor using recursive iteration and series resistance and less accurate. In summary, both approaches still require
identification using photovoltaic model equation. The reminding
additional sensing device to achieve solar irradiance
modeling parameters can be obtained from the given
measurement. To eliminate the need of additional sensing
photovoltaic module manufacturer datasheet. With all the
required parameters in place the solar irradiance can be device, this paper purposed a solar irradiance estimation
estimated using equation derived from the photovoltaic model. method obtain directly from the photovoltaic module short
The proposed solar irradiance estimation method is evaluated circuit output measurement. This can leads to substantial cost
using a 80W 36 cells polycrystalline photovoltaic module in the saving for solar irradiance monitoring for small scale
field and the results are validated with a World Meteorological residential or building integrated photovoltaic power
Organization certified second class pyranometer. This paper generation system.
demonstrates that the solar irradiance can be estimated by the
The basic principle of solar irradiance measurement is
short circuit current output measured from the photovoltaic
module with acceptable accuracy. This contributes to the
based on the photocurrent produce by a silicon PN junction [5],
elimination of the installation of expensive pyranometer. with that in mind the photovoltaic module itself can be used a
sensing device to measure solar irradiance. This paper focus on
Keywords—photovoltaic modeling; pyranometer; short circuit utilizing the photovoltaic module itself to measure solar
current; solar irradiance irradiance based on the mathematical photovoltaic model. To
date, there is only one literature found on the measurement of
I. INTRODUCTION solar irradiance directly from photovoltaic module [6], the
Solar insolation is the energy radiated for the sun to the method presented is based on the correlation between the solar
surface of the earth measured in J/m2 in hourly or daily basis as irradiance and the photovoltaic module voltage output. The
recommended by World Meteorological Organization. correlation equation is derives using experimental approach.
However, in photovoltaic power generation system, solar This method does not fit well with the photovoltaic module
irradiance is preferred over solar insolation because it is characteristics as it is a nonlinear current source device.
measured in W/m2. With that solar irradiance became an The proposed estimation method allows the
essential monitoring parameter for photovoltaic power measurement of solar irradiance without the use of
generation system to evaluate its efficiency and output pyranometer. The solar irradiance is estimate from the
performance. photovoltaic module short circuit current output measurement
The first solar irradiance measurement was carried out by using first principle derived photovoltaic mathematical model.
the Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL) at National A photovoltaic power measurement unit is requires to acquire
Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in 1978 [1]. The solar the current reading into the computer to computes the solar
irradiance serves as reference index to evaluate the irradiance. The proposed method contributes to the elimination
performance and efficiency of a photovoltaic power generation of the installation of expensive pyranometer to monitor solar
system [2]. The solar irradiance can be measured using irradiance for photovoltaic system performance monitoring and
pyranometer or reference solar cells [3-4]. Each method has its efficiency measurement.
own merit and limitation. Pyranometer is a common choice as
it is widely available off the shelf and measurement setup is
relatively simple and straight forward, however it incurs a
higher cost. This is because the pyranometer itself is an
expensive piece of instrument and requires additional

978-1-4799-0843-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

 II. METHODOLOGY Boltzmann constant of 1.38x10-23, A is the diode ideality factor
between 1 to 2, T is the diode junction temperature in kelvin
Photovoltaic module mathematical model derived from a and N is the number of photovoltaic cells that connect in series
single diode circuit is used as a basis to develop the proposed to form the module.
solar irradiance estimation method. It begins with deriving the
photovoltaic module model equations, simplification of the (3)
model, diode ideality factor identification using recursive
iteration technique, identifying the photovoltaic module series In practice, the diode leakage current is extremely small
resistance and lastly the solar irradiance estimation using the and is insignificant to the proposed estimation results.
Therefore the shunt resistor represents the diode leakage
derived photovoltiac model equations.
current in the model can be neglected. The simplified
The following sections present the photovoltic module photovoltaic module model is now represents in (4).
mathematical model derived from a single diode circuit, the
diode ideality factor identification, series resistance 1 (4)
identification and lastly the solar irradiance esitmation
methods. The diode reverse saturation current Is is now derived from
(4) with Iph = 0 for dark current condition as shown in (5).

A. Photovoltaic Module Model (5)

A typical photovoltaic module model can be represented by
a single diode model as shown in Fig.1. The model consists of The photovoltaic module model represents in (4) and (5)
a current source parallel with a PN junction diode, a shunt are used as the basis to develop the proposed solar irradiance
resistor and a series resistor. The current source is used to estimation method. For any given commercially available
model the photo current generated by photon energy radiated photovoltaic module, its datasheet will often provide
from the sun, the diode is used to model the electron hole information including the number of cells N, short circuit
recombination in the PN junction and reverse saturation current current Isc, Open circuit voltage Voc, maximum power current
of the photovoltaic module. The shunt resistance is to model Imp and maximum power voltage Vmp at G=1 and T=25ºC.
the leakage current of the diode and lastly the series resistance However, the diode ideality factor and the series resistance are
is to model the internal resistance of the photovoltaic module. not provided by any manufacturer datasheet. Therefore, the
diode ideality factor and the series resistance are requires to
determine in order to estimate the solar irradiance from the
model.
B. Diode Ideality Factor Identification Method
The diode ideality factor for a given photovoltaic cell or
module cannot be found in any manufacturer datasheet. It is
often in the range between 1 to 2. There are many literatures
made assumption that the diode ideality factor for
monocrystalline material is 1.2, polycrystalline is 1.3 and CdTe
is 1.5 [7-8]. It is understood that the doping process in
semiconductor material cannot be exact during photovoltaic
cell manufacturing. Therefore, the assumption may not be
accurate for all photovoltaic modules.
Fig. 1. Single diode model of a photovoltaic module model
To identify the diode ideality factor for a given
The equation that represents the photovoltaic module model photovoltaic module, a recursive iteration technique is
is shown in (1), where Iph is the photo current, Is is the diode proposed. The flowchart of the proposed methodology is
reverse saturation current, vt is the diode thermal voltage, Rs is shown in Fig. 2. It begins with diode ideality factor of A = 1,
the series resistance, Rsh is the shunt resistance, I is the output which is the ideal factor value. With the short circuit current
current and V is the output voltage of the photovoltaic module. Isc and open circuit voltage Voc and number of cells obtained
from the given photovoltaic module datasheet, the diode
1 (1) reverse saturation current Is can be determined using (5) with
Rs=0, I=Isc and T=25ºC. After obtaining Is, the photovoltaic
The Iph is the photo current of the photovoltaic module that module output current can be determine using (4) for Rs=0,
generates current proportional to the solar irradiance as shown V=0 to Voc at G=1. G is 1 because the Isc and Voc given in the
in (2), where Isc is the short circuit current of the photovoltaic datasheet is refers to G=1. Now compare if the calculated
module and G is the solar irradiance in W/m2 divided by 1000. output current I at Vmp < Imp, if not less than or equal to
output current I at Vmp, proceed to next iteration by adding 0.1
(2)
to A until the condition met. Once the condition is met where I
The thermal voltage of the diode vt can be calculate using at Vmp < Imp, the diode ideality factor is A=A-0.1. The
(3), where q is the electron charge of 1.6x10-19, k is the proposed technique uses output current I at Vmp < Imp as
condition to determine the diode idealitty factor because The maximum power point is obtained by Imp and Vmp from
photovoltaic is a current source device. the manufacturer datasheet. Aft
fter identifying the diode ideality
factor of A=1.8 and series resistance Rs=0.017Ω, the
photovoltaic I-V curve convergged through the maximum power
point indicating the proposed modeling
m technique is correct.

Fig. 3. Photovoltaic module I-V curvee before and after identification of diode
ideality factor and series resistance

D. Solar Irradiance Estimationn Method

With the identified photoovoltaic module diode ideality
factor and series resistance value in place, the photovoltaic
Fig. 2. Diode ideality factor identification method flowchhart module can now be modeled using u (7) and (8) to see its I-V
C. Series Resistance Identification Method curve performance with the varriation of G. Fig. 4 shows the I-
V curve of a given photovoltaicc module with G varies from 0.2
The series resistance is another parametter that cannot be to 1 representing 200 to 1000 W/m2.
W It can be clearly seen that
found in any photovoltaic module manufactuurer datasheet. It is the short circuit current at V=00 varies almost linearly with the
an important parameter in photovoltaic moddule modeling as it variation of G. However, the open circuit voltage at I=0 and
represents the internal losses of the energy sources.
s Therefore maximum power point have hiigher nonlinearity, therefore, the
the series resistance cannot be neglecteed and must be short current circuit is consider as a basis for the proposed solar
identified. In the previous section, the diode ideality irradiance estimation.
identification method assume Rs=0, as thee current at Vmp
approaches Imp, the last iteration stops at thhe current at Vmp
just above Imp. To improvise the photovoltaaic module current
at Vmp=Imp for the model, the series resistannce takes it place to
fulfill the condition. With the known diode ideality factor, the
series resistance can be determined using (6) derived from (4)
with output current I=Imp obtained from dataasheet.

1 (6)

Once the ideality factor and series resistaance are identified,

the photovoltaic module can now be modeledd using (7) and (8)
with Isc, Voc, Imp, Vmp and N obtained from f manufacturer
datasheet.

1 (7)
Fig. 4. Photovoltaic module I-V curvee performance under the variation of G
(8) from 0.2 to 1.

The solar irradiance for a giiven photovoltaic module can be

estimated using (9) derived from (4) with I is now the
Fig. 3 shows the I-V curve for photovolttaic module model measured short circuit currentt from the photovoltaic module
before and after identifying the diode idealityy factor and series and V=0 at short circuit conditioon.
resistance value. It can be clearly seen that the initiate model
assume A=1 and Rs=0. The dotted I-V curve does not converge
through the maximum power point indicatess by the red circle. (9)
 The estimated solar irradiance G in (9) will be in between 0 W/m2. In term of error in percentage with respect to the
to 2, therefore it is require to multiply by 1000 to convert to pyranometer, the highest error is 15.9% at 144 W/m2, but as the
W/m2 unit. solar irradiance increases the error in percentage decreases
respectively. Even with the present of error, the results clearly
III. RESULTS & DISCUSSION shows that the solar irradiance can be estimated using the short
The proposed method is evaluated using a 80W 36 cells circuit current output measurement with acceptable accuracy.
polycrystalline photovoltaic module SLP080-12 from To further validate the proposed estimation method more
Solarland. A World Meteorology Organizational certified field test should be conducted in hourly or daily basis with
second class pyranometer CMP3 from Kipp and Zonen is used different types of photovoltaic module. The proposed solar
to validate the proposed estimation results. Fig. 5 shows the irradiance estimation method accuracy can be further improved
field test setup consists of photovoltaic module connected to by taking the temperature coefficients into account in the
ammeter set at 10A range and the pyranometer connected to photovoltaic model.
voltmeter set at millivolt range place under the sun. Meter
reading during test is recorded from time to time with solar IV. CONCLUSION
irradiance ranging from 50W/m2 to 900W/m2 based on
pyranometer reading. The proposed solar irradiance estimation method has been
successfully derived using photovoltaic mathematical model.
The estimation results are evaluated using a 80W 36 cells
photovoltaic module and validated using pyranometer. This
paper demonstrates that the solar irradiance can be estimated
by the short circuit current output measured from the
photovoltaic module with acceptable accuracy. The proposed
method contributes to the elimination of the installation of
expensive pyranometer to monitor solar irradiance for
photovoltaic system performance monitoring and efficiency
measurement.
REFERENCES
[1] Tom Stoffel, “20 Years of Solar Measurements: The Solar Radiation
Research Laboratory (SRRL) at NREL”, Apr 2005.
[2] Rafiza Abdul Rahman, Shahril Irwan Sulaiman, Ahmad Maliki Omar,
Fig. 5. Field test setup to record data for photovoltaic module short circuit Zainazlan Md. Zain, Sulaiman Shaari, “Performance Analysis of
current and pyranometer reading 45.36kWp Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems at Malaysia Green
Technology Corporation”, International Symposium & Exhibition in
The field measurement and the proposed estimated results Sustainable Energy & Environment (ISESEE), Jun 2011, pp. 1-3.
are tabulated in Table 1. [3] Lawrence Dunn, Michael Gostein, Keith Emery, “Comparison of
Pyranometers vs PV reference Cells for Evaluation of PV Array
TABLE I. PYRANOMETER MEASUREMENT, PV SHORT CIRCUIT Performance”, The 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
CURRENT MEASUREMENT AND THE PROPOSED SOLAR IRRADIANCE (PVSC), Jun 2012, pp. 2899-2904.
ESTIMATION RESULTS
[4] Chedly B. Yahya, “Performance Monitoring of Solar Photovoltaic
Pyranometer PV Short Circuit Estimated Solar Error in Error in Systems Using Reference Cells”, International Conference on
(W/m2) Current (A) Irradiance(W/m2) (W/m2) (%) Microelectronics, Dec 2008, pp. 445-449.
50 0.27 54 4 8 [5] M. Benghanem, A.Maafi, “Measurement System for Solar Radiation”,
122 0.64 127 5 4.1 IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, May
144 0.84 167 23 15.9 1997, pp. 932-935.
230 1.31 260 30 13 [6] Nur Syahidah Husain, Nor Athirah Zainal, Balbir Singh Mahinder
481 2.56 509 28 5.8 Singh, Norani Muti Mohamed, Nursyarizal Mohd Nor, “Integrated PV
502 2.63 523 21 4.2 Based Solar Insolation Measurement and Performance Monitoring
531 2.81 557 26 4.9 System”, IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science and Engineering
610 3.22 640 30 4.9 (CHUSER), Dec 2011, pp. 710-715.
682 3.39 674 8 1.2 [7] S.Sheik Mohammed, “Modeling and Simulation of Photovoltaic Module
718 3.84 763 45 6.3 using MATLAB/Simulink”, International Journal of Chemical and
818 4.31 857 39 4.8 Environmental Engineering, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 1-6, Oct 2011.
883 4.58 910 27 3.1 [8] Huan-Liang Tsai, Ci-Siang Tu, Yi-Jie Su, “Development of Generalized
Photovoltaic Model Using MATLAB/SIMULINK”, Proceeding of the
World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science, Oct 2008, pp. 1-
The field test results show the proposed solar irradiance 6.
estimation method yield a highest error of 45 W/m2 at 718