Designing photovoltaic panel emulator and performance testing

Solar panels produce the electrical energy depending on parameters such as solar radiation, ambient temperature, and the semiconductor material characteristics. The radiation intensity and temperature vary depending on the atmospheric phenomena. Therefore, the energy produced by the solar panels varies depending on these parameters. When testing on equal conditions of R & D work on various devices supplied with solar panels, the emulators are needed. This study two emulators designing are implemented. In the first, programmable power supply used and, controlling the power supply is provided with a designed interface. In the second emulator, containing the DC-DC converters, a specially designed card for this study used and the control of DC-DC converters are provided on the same interface. Firstly a model is produced depending on the panel information, and then the model is run for daily radiation intensity and temperature data in the interface. The two emulators are tested using the same panel model and the same data on equal terms. In these tests, it is observed that designed emulator cards runs faster than programmable power supply and reflects well the properties panel at performance testing.