Find Vmp & Imp for Solar Cells: A Homework Solution

[Kvm90]

Homework Statement

I am working on solar cells and have gathered a bunch of IV curves that I know are correct. I need to find the Fill Factor for each of these curves in order to find the efficiency, max power, etc.

Homework Equations

I obtained the Isc and Voc for all the curves I measured.

FF=(Vmp*Imp)/(Isc*Voc)

The Attempt at a Solution

I just have no clue how to get Vmp and Imp. I know that their product gives the max power and so the line on the IV curve projected horizontally (for Vmp) and vertically (Imp) should produce the rectangle with the largest area. But how do I find these points mathematically rather than just eyeballing the biggest box?

 

[berkeman]

Homework Statement

I am working on solar cells and have gathered a bunch of IV curves that I know are correct. I need to find the Fill Factor for each of these curves in order to find the efficiency, max power, etc.

Homework Equations

I obtained the Isc and Voc for all the curves I measured.

FF=(Vmp*Imp)/(Isc*Voc)

The Attempt at a Solution

I just have no clue how to get Vmp and Imp. I know that their product gives the max power and so the line on the IV curve projected horizontally (for Vmp) and vertically (Imp) should produce the rectangle with the largest area. But how do I find these points mathematically rather than just eyeballing the biggest box?

Do you have the I,V datasets for each of the curves? You can just use Excel to calculate the product of each I,V datapoint for each curve to get its power, and then look to see which line gives you the maximum power output for each curve. That will give you your Imp, Vmp datapoints, which will define the rectangle for each curve.