A Population Classification Evolution Algorithm for the Parameter Extraction of Solar Cell Models

To quickly and precisely extract the parameters for solar cell models, inspired by simplified bird mating optimizer (SBMO), a new optimization technology referred to as population classification evolution (PCE) is proposed. PCE divides the population into two groups, elite and ordinary, to reach a better compromise between exploitation and exploration. For the evolution of elite individuals, we adopt the idea of parthenogenesis in nature to afford a fast exploitation. For the evolution of ordinary individuals, we adopt an effective differential evolution strategy and a random movement of small probability is added to strengthen the ability to jump out of a local optimum, which affords a fast exploration. The proposed PCE is first estimated on 13 classic benchmark functions. The experimental results demonstrate that PCE yields the best results on 11 functions by comparing it with six evolutional algorithms. Then, PCE is applied to extract the parameters for solar cell models, that is, the single diode and the double diode. The experimental analyses demonstrate that the proposed PCE is superior when comparing it with other optimization algorithms for parameter identification. Moreover, PCE is tested using three different sources of data with good accuracy.