An Empirical Study on the Effect of Temperature and Irradiance on the Power Output of a Mini PV Plant in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

In this paper, an empirical study on the effect of temperature and irradiance on solar cell parameters is done. To achieve this, a simulation model that describes the relationship between irradiance, temperature and power output is developed using MATLAB R2013b. A pyranometer and thermometer devices were then used to obtain irradiance and temperature data from a mini PV plant for a 30 day period. Power output from the plant were also captured during this period using the EP-Solar Charge Controller. The obtained irradiance and temperature data were then fed into the developed SIMULINK models. Power outputs from the models were compared with the measured power from the plant using three statistical test tools of MAPE, MBE, and RMSE.