To meet the global growing energy demand, it is vital to develop solar photovoltaic (PV) power electronic conversion system. This necessitates the modeling of PV array for development of energy efficient power electronic conversion system. Several mathematical modeling approaches of PV arrays are available in the literature. However, I-V and P-V characteristics of the PV models are different, due to the consideration of different parameters in the modeling. The main objective of this paper is to identify a simple, fast and accurate model of PV array to obtain the nonlinear I-V characteristics, matching with the real array, by appropriate selection of ideality factor, calculation of series and parallel resistance to obtain maximum power similar to real PV array. This paper studies the influence of the above mentioned parameters in four different PV array models using MATLAB/Simulink environment. The performance of each model is discussed in detail, which will be useful in the selection of effective model for future power electronics engineering application for development of energy efficient conversion system. © 2012 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All Rigthts Reserved.