Solar photovoltaic energy sources are rapidly gaining potential growth and popularity compared to conventional fossil fuel sources. This work presents a photovoltaic system laboratory experiment developed for engineering students to emphasize the need for enhanced renewable energy education. The experiment exposes students to photovoltaic system components, working principles, and maximum power operating point. It is designed to complement a renewable energy course. Results along with animation from the hands-on experiment are presented in this study.

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Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy sources are rapidly gaining potential growth and popularity compared to conventional fossil fuel sources. As the merging of PV systems with existing power sources increases, reliable and accurate PV system identification is essential, to address the highly nonlinear change in PV system dynamic and operational characteristics. This paper deals with the identification of a PV system characteristic with a switch-mode power converter. Measured input-output data are collected from a real PV panel to be used for the identification. The data are divided into estimation and validation sets. The identification methodology is discussed. A Hammerstein-Wiener model is identified and selected due to its suitability to best capture the PV system dynamics, and results and discussion are provided to demonstrate the accuracy of the selected model structure.

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