Effect of Solar Irradiance Variation on Photovoltaic Power Output: A Single-Diode Simulation Study
Keywords:
photovoltaic module, solar irradiance, single-diode model, maximum power point, I–V characteristic, simulationAbstract
This study examines how controlled changes in solar irradiance affect the instantaneous electrical characteristics of a reference photovoltaic (PV) module using a reproducible single-diode simulation. Unlike resource-assessment studies that integrate solar irradiation across days or months, the analysis is restricted to current–voltage (I–V) behavior, power–voltage (P–V) characteristics, and the maximum power point (MPP) under constant cell temperature. A hypothetical 36-cell module is described by a photogenerated current of 8.70 A, reverse saturation current of 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ A, diode ideality factor of 1.35, series resistance of 0.28 Ω, and shunt resistance of 180 Ω. Irradiance is varied from 200 to 1000 W/m² at 25°C. Numerical solutions of the implicit diode equation yield the modeled short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and maximum power at each operating point. The corresponding curves reveal that irradiance strongly controls current and MPP, whereas voltage changes more moderately. A linear power-scaling approximation is compared with the diode-model estimates, and a local ±20% perturbation around 600 W/m² is used to quantify sensitivity. All parameters are illustrative rather than derived from a commercial datasheet, and no experimental validation or real-weather analysis is claimed. The contribution is a transparent electrical-level benchmark that separates model-induced behavior from measured PV performance.
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