In order to sweep completely the obstacle to the whole linearization of photovoltaic (PV) system with non-linear PV cell, in this paper, the voltage-current characteristic of PV cell at the maximum power point (MPP) is linearized and two linear equivalent models including Thevenin equivalent model and Norton equivalent model are proposed. On the basis of this work, the whole linearization of PV system is workable and reasonable, and then the conventional linear theories or laws can be used to study PV system conveniently. Meanwhile, in this work, the direct relationships between three linear model parameters and variable weather parameters (VWP) were found, which ensures the strong adaptation of these proposed models to the varying weather conditions. Finally, some simulation experiments verify that these proposed models are feasible and available in practical application, illustrate that the characteristics of three linear model parameters are influenced by varying weather conditions and unaffected by varying load, and show that PV system using the proposed Thevenin equivalent model has the same maximum power point tacking (MPPT) stead-state performance and similar MPPT transient-state performance with the conventional four-parameter model under fast varying weather conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.