Development of numerical model-based photovoltaic emulator for half-cut cell PV panel with multiple peaks output characteristics curve emulation capability

Abstract

This study introduces a photovoltaic (PV) emulator focusing on a developed numerical model specifically for half-cut cell PV panels under partial shading conditions (PSCs), addressing a gap in research focused on full-cell models. The emulator uses a DC-DC buck converter and PI control to accurately replicate half-cut cell PV panel characteristics. A cost-effective hardware prototype validated the model's effectiveness in emulating multi-peak PV behavior under dynamic PSCs with up to three peaks and user-defined shading. This flexible and affordable platform enables efficient testing of MPPT algorithms and grid integration for PV systems using increasingly prevalent half-cut cell technology. Simulation results show high accuracy, with MAPE in power as low as 0.175% under uniform irradiance conditions and less than 0.302% under multi-peaks PSCs. Hardware validation confirms reliability with low MAPE in the power of 0.499% under uniform conditions and below 0.614% multi-peak PSCs, demonstrating the developed half-cut cell PV panel numerical model's accuracy in reproducing dynamic shading effects for renewable energy research.