Identifying accurate and precise photovoltaic models' parameters is the primary gate in providing a proper PV system design simulate its real behavior. Therefore, this article proposed a new approach based on a recent metaheuristic algorithm of artificial ecosystem-based optimization (AEO) to identify the optimal parameters of PV cell and module models. Various PV models are considered in this work as single diode (SD), double diode (DD), and triple diode (TD)-based circuits. The analysis is performed on which are R.T.C. France silicon solar cell, FSM-25 PV module, and Canadian-Solar-(CS6P-240P) multi-crystalline solar panel with the aid of experimental data under different operating conditions. Moreover, Lambert form is employed to validate the constructed model. Furthermore, comparative analysis with Harris hawks optimizer (HHO), gray wolf optimizer (GWO), and salp swarm algorithm (SSA) is performed. Additionally, statistical analysis using the Wilcoxon signed rank test is implemented across the three series of experiments for all employed optimizers. The obtained results confirmed the competence of the proposed approach in identifying the PV cell and modules equivalent circuits' parameters. K E Y W O R D S artificial ecosystem-based optimizer, double diode PV model, PV parameters estimation, single diode PV model, three-diode model 1 | INTRODUCTION Recently, renewable energy sources (RESs) penetrated in many engineering applications as alternatives of fossil fuel sources. Solar energy is one form of RESs in which the sunlight is converted to electrical energy via solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. Different PV panels are available which are mono-crystalline, multi-crystalline, and amorphous type.