Supercapacitor based PV measurement technique − quality assessment with poly-Si PV modules at IIEST, Kolkata

Supercapacitors have been used for the first time as load to PV cell/modules for characterizing their behavior. In this paper, a novel and essentially simple design of a V–I plotter is attempted with a bank of super capacitors (SC) as the load to the PV modules of varying capacities. The distinct advantages of the SC's over the erstwhile capacitors have been comparatively experimented. Finally, an elaborate regression analysis (RA) of principal electrical parameters have yielded consistently high values exceeding 0.993 experimental evaluation of quality parameters like fill-factor (FF) and performance ratio (PR) have yielded a range of 70–79% while PR values frequently ranges from 90% to 99%. Suitability of poly-Si PV modules at the level of PV panel configurations have been ascertained through experimental estimate of series and parallel relative power loss (RPL) values. Typical values below 2% obtained for widely varying climatic level is also a quality indicator for the new metrology in question. Such a prototype I–V plotter is expected to be duly considered for commercial testing applications in PV industries.