Estimation of the Electrical Energy Generation Function of a Photovoltaic Module

Knowing the electrical power generation function of a photovoltaic module for a locality is of vital importance in predicting the possible amount of energy to be produced by the module over a period and determining whether or not it covers demand. The objective of this research was to determine the electric power generation function of a photovoltaic module from the measured instantaneous power, and therefore to be able to predict the amount of electrical energy that will be produced in a given time interval. In this paper, there are 9655 measurements of a photovoltaic cell recorded in the months of July, August and September. An application was developed to process the data, so that the instantaneous power could be calculated for each measurement and, with a mathematical assistant, instantaneous power values of the electrical generation function of the module were able to be adjusted. With the function of sought electrical generation, we proceeded to predict the generation of electrical energy for different days and compared it with the measured results of the generated electrical energy. It was possible to verify the validity of the applied method with an error of 1.7 %.