Diseño de un banco de pruebas para paneles solares fotovoltáicos, mediante un convertidor reductor-elevador

This research paper presents the system design for automatically obtaining the characteristics curves of a solar panel using a DC-DC Buck-Boost Converter. This converter allows to simply modify the operation point of the solar panel, delivering power to a load resistance with the aim to expose the solar panel to a wide range of operation to determine its characteristic curve, Power vs. Voltage. The solar panel is connected to the DC-DC converter using a capacitive in order to reduce the ripple current, to thereby obtain a better performance from the solar panel. The operation point is fixed with an open loop controller using a PWM modulator, the power is measured by the voltage and the solar panel output current, operation is verified by computer simulation using the Psim ® software.