An alternative method of testing maximum power point tracking and solar Photo Voltaic (PV) system performance with a solar PV emulator is presented in this paper. Solar PV emulators are Hardware-in-Loop setup, which mimics the characteristics of a PV panel. Further, these emulators are supplementary to strenuous field testing and commercial solar PV training systems available for research prototyping. In this paper, a solar PV emulator built using a DC-DC Buck Converter and dSPACE ds1104 controller is proposed. In addition, MATLAB/SIMULINK Environment is used to construct the Mathematical Model of Solar PV Module. The proposed Solar PV Emulator has the following features: (1) ease in interfacing with faster dynamic response, (2) ability to monitor and control in real-time using a control desk, (3) higher bandwidth DC-DC buck converter, (4) stable output with lower response time, (5) lower output voltage and current ripple, and (6) capability to reproduce near accurate static and dynamic characteristics of any solar PV module. To illustrate the performance of the proposed emulator, the I-V characteristics of a shell SP70 PV panel are obtained. To further understand the dynamic and steady state behaviour of the system, experimentations are done at different operating conditions. Finally, to know the suitability of the proposed emulator for maximum power point tracking, the Perturb & Observe algorithm is tested for uniform and partial shading conditions. © 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.