Photovoltaic Panel Parameters Estimation Using an Opposition Based Initialization Particle Swarm Optimization †

Abstract

A photovoltaic (PV) cell is generally used as renewable energy source. For an accurate study of various PV applications, modeling this basic device in a PV generator is essential. However, the manufacturers do not usually provide the model parameters and their values vary over time due to PV degradation and the change in weather conditions. Thus, finding an optimal technique for estimating the appropriate parameters is crucial. This problem can be solved by metaheuristic optimization algorithms, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO). However, early convergence is the main defect of PSO. This work presents an enhancement in the optimization method (PSO) for identifying the optimal parameters of a PV generating unit. In this method, the identification of parameters of the single diode model is based on an opposition-based initialization particle swarm optimization technique. The optimization algorithm is implemented in MATLAB which gives good results.