A device for the analysis of photovoltaic panels

In this paper we present the elaboration and functioning of an electronic unit for examining the Volt-Ampere (V-I) and the output (P-V) characteristics of a PV panel. The unit was designed by us to record the PV panel voltage at different current loads. A digitally controlled electronic load was developed to set the current values by a chosen increment. Then, the unit measures the corresponding voltage value for each current value by an analog-digital converter (ADC). All pairs of values are used as input to a microcontroller and then transferred to a PC, where they can be graphically visualized by a specialized software. Different PV panels with varying output (P-V) characteristics were used to test the performance of the elaborated electronic unit. These experiments revealed that the unit is appropriate for PV panel analysis both under laboratory and field conditions.