Mathematical improvisation of electrical equivalent circuit model for commercial dye-sensitized solar module with Gauss–Seidel, curve fit and theoretical approach

This paper presents two equivalent electrical circuit models of a dye-sensitized solar (DSS) module (150B-3 390). The module, which uses a third-generation solar cell, has several advantages over the earlier two generations. The equivalent model increases the research opportunities on solar cell technology development even without an existing solar plant. The paper highlights the development of an equivalent model of the module with the proposed method, as no such model is currently available to carry out further research with the module. The single-diode model (SDM) is a widely utilized simple approach that describes solar cell behavior very well. Model I in the paper is developed using only the SDM approach. It consists of a few unknown parameters estimated with the Gauss–Seidel method. The results from Model I show that the model requires certain improvements, due to the fundamental differences in the characteristic curves between conventional solar cells and DSS cells. The proposed model can more precisely describe the behavior of the module. Gauss–Seidel, curve fitting, and theoretical methods were used to develop the proposed model. It describes the irradiance effect of the module by introducing two newly developed parameters to Model I. The proposed model, with the theoretically modified characteristic equation of Model I, illustrates the temperature effect. The experimental work for the modeling is carried out on the DSS module inside a laboratory environment with standard test conditions. A Raspberry Pi 4 B with sensing devices is used to extract the measurable parameters from the module. Both models are based on an SDM design approach. Characteristic curves of the module from measured data validate the output characteristics of both models at various irradiance and temperature values. The results confirm the superiority of the proposed model over Model I.