Efficient Solar Radiation Estimation Method based on a Curve Fitting Approach

Abstract

This study presents an accurate solar radiation estimation method based on the relationship between the solar radiation and the short circuit current of the PV panel. In order to avoid the interruption of the generated power of the PV panel during the solar estimation period an auxiliary PV panel fixed in the same alignment with other PV panels is used to estimate the solar radiation. The proposed method is implemented and tested using a 3W poly-crystalline PV panel PSP3 and a microcontroller (Arduino Uno). Test results verified the accuracy of the proposed method for several solar radiation cases.