The Sandia PV Array Performance Model (SAPM) defines five points on the IV curve. These points are shown in the figure below.
The SAPM defines the primary points (,
,
, and
) with the following equations:
(eq. 1)
(eq. 2)
(eq. 3)
(eq. 4)
Functions:
is a 4th order polynomial function of absolute air mass,
, and is called the air mass modifier. It is defined as:
where is the vector of coefficients that are determined from module testing.
is a 5th order polynomial function of angle of incidence,
, and is called the angle of incidence modifier. it is defined as:
where is the vector of coefficients that are determined from module testing.
is the “effective irradiance”. It is defined as:
, where:
is the short circuit current at reference conditions.
can be calculated from (eq. 1) above.
is a function of
defined as:
, where:
is an empirically determined ‘diode factor’,
is Boltzmann’s constant (
),
is the elementary charge constant (
)
is a function of effective irradiance,
, defined as:
, where:
is the temperature coefficient for module open circuit voltage at irradiance conditions of
.
is a coefficient describing the irradiance dependence for the open circuit voltage temperature coefficient (typically equals zero)
Parameters:
is beam irradiance on the plane of array
is the diffuse irradiance on the plane of array
is reference solar irradiance (
)
is cell temperature (
)
is reference cell temperature (
)
is the fraction of the diffuse light that is used by the module. For typical flat plate modules
is usually assumed to be equal to 1. For concentrators the value can be smaller than 1.
is the normalized temperature coefficient for short circuit current. Units are
is the normalized temperature coefficient for maximum power current. Units are
is the number of cells in series
is a vector of coefficients determined by module testing using a method developed at Sandia.