Analysis of inverter models and harmonic propagation. Part 1: A physical simulator for large solar cell arrays

Part 1 of a three part study presents the experimental and theoretical analysis of a physical simulator that simulates the output current voltage characteristics of large solar cell arrays. The simulator system is composed of a separately excited dc generator and a microcomputer based controller. The desired output characteristics of the solar cell arrays are obtained at the dc generator terminals by the control of the generator exciting current. The microcomputer generates a controlled error signal based on the simultaneous solution of the dc generator load equation and the analytical expression of the experimentally obtained solar cell characteristic. This controlled error signal changes the exciting current of the dc generator such that the output characteristics of the solar cell arrays are obtained.