A comparison of circuit models for simulating and evaluating the current–voltage characteristics of PERT N-type bifacial solar cell

Abstract This paper compares two simulation models for evaluating the current–voltage ( I – V ) characteristics of PERT N-type bifacial solar cells in outdoor conditions in accordance with the IEC 60904-1-2 TS and IEC 60891 standards. The experiment consisted of testing a commercial bifacial photovoltaic module under three irradiance conditions: simultaneous front and rear illumination, front-only illumination, and rear-only illumination. The parameters, series resistance ( R s ) and shunt resistance ( R sh ), were extracted for each condition using the single-curve method. MATLAB Simulink assisted in the development of two simulation models. Model 1 had a single shared parameter set for both sides, while model 2 had distinct parameters for the front and rear sides. Results indicate that model 2 exhibits considerably higher accuracy, particularly in scenarios where simultaneous irradiance on both sides impacts performance. This conclusion is evidenced by the greater R 2 values (0.9835, 0.9600, 0.7343) relative to model 1. Although the high accuracy, the deviation near the maximum power point points to the need to consider voltage-dependent parameters such as ideality factor ( n ) and reverse saturation current ( I o ) for future work.