Simulation of Photovoltaic Systems

A computer-implemented method for estimating at least one performance measure or operating parameter of a photovoltaic system configuration under a sequence of temporally evolving operating conditions, the photovoltaic system configuration comprising a configuration of a plurality of statically switchable serial interconnections, statically switchable parallel interconnections, dynamically switchable parallel interconnections or dynamically switchable serial interconnections between photovoltaic cell groups, the method comprising:

• obtaining a database comprising a plurality of current-voltage characteristic curves, each current-voltage characteristic curve being accessible by a query request identifying a topology of a photovoltaic cell group, at least one internal temperature for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group and at least one cell irradiation for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group, wherein the database provides a mapping of the query request onto the plurality of current-voltage characteristic curves in a form of a many-to-one mapping, wherein the mapping maps a cluster of different topologies, the mapping maps different internal temperatures or the mapping maps different cell irradiations onto a single representative current-voltage characteristic curve;
• receiving data indicative of the sequence of operating conditions as input, the data comprising at least an irradiation, an ambient temperature and a wind velocity for each step of the sequence;
• determining, for at least one photovoltaic cell in each of the photovoltaic cell groups, a sequence of internal temperatures corresponding to the sequence of operating conditions, taking at least the irradiation, the ambient temperature and the wind velocity into account;
• selecting, for each of the photovoltaic cell groups, a representative current-voltage curve from the database by a query request based on a topology of the photovoltaic cell group, the irradiation and the internal temperatures determined for each photovoltaic cell of the photovoltaic cell group;
• calculating at least one aggregate current-voltage characteristic curve for each step of the sequence of evolving operating conditions;
• and
• outputting at least one performance or operating parameter for each step of the sequence of evolving operating conditions,
• wherein obtaining the database comprises:
• simulating, for an at least one combination of a topology of a photovoltaic cell group, at least one internal temperature for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group and at least one cell irradiation for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group, a model of the photovoltaic cell group to provide a current-voltage characteristic curve representative of the at least one combination;
• clustering the current-voltage characteristic curves to identify at least one plurality of similar current-voltage characteristic curves;
• and
• generating a many-to-one mapping in the database to map query requests that correspond to each of the at least one plurality of similar current-voltage characteristic curves onto a single representative current-voltage characteristic curve for that plurality of similar current-voltage characteristic curves, each query request identifying a topology of a photovoltaic cell group, at least one internal temperature for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group and at least one cell irradiation for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations for generating or updating a database comprising a plurality of current-voltage characteristic curves, the operations comprising:

• simulating, for an at least one combination of a topology of a photovoltaic cell group, at least one internal temperature for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group and at least one cell irradiation for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group, a model of the photovoltaic cell group to provide a current-voltage characteristic curve representative of the at least one combination;
• clustering the current-voltage characteristic curves to identify at least one plurality of similar current-voltage characteristic curves;
• and
• generating a many-to-one mapping in the database to map query requests that correspond to each of the at least one plurality of similar current-voltage characteristic curves onto a single representative current-voltage characteristic curve for that plurality of similar current-voltage characteristic curves, each query request identifying a topology of a photovoltaic cell group, at least one internal temperature for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group and at least one cell irradiation for the photovoltaic cells in the photovoltaic cell group.