Estimation of irradiance and temperature using photovoltaic modules

•We estimate the irradiance and temperature with the PV module operating.•The focus of this work is to estimate the irradiance and temperature by PV module.•Simulation were made for various situations of irradiance and temperature. The objective of this paper is to present a new estimator of both irradiance and temperature, called GT Estimator (G – Irradiation and T – temperature). This estimator uses the measurements of current and voltage of the photovoltaic (PV) module. The estimator eliminates the use of costly sensors for measuring the irradiance and maintains an acceptable accuracy. The equations and the algorithm for the calculation of the estimates are presented along with simulation results.