Abstract The integration of photovoltaic systems (PVSs) in future power systems grows into a more attractive choice. Thus, the studies related to PVSs operation have gained immense interest. Particularly, research in identifying PV cell model parameters remains an agile field because of the non-linearity of PV cell characteristics and its wide dependency on meteorological conditions of irradiation level and temperature. This paper proposes an Opposition-based Learning Modified Salp Swarm Algorithm (OLMSSA) for accurate identification of the two-diode model parameters of the electrical equivalent circuit of the PV cell/module. Six metaheuristic algorithms, including the recently released basic algorithm SSA, used with the benchmark test PV model of the double diode, and a practical PV module, are employed to assess the performance of OLMSSA. The experimental results and the in-depth comparative study clearly demonstrate that OLMSSA is highly competitive and even significantly better than the reported results of the majority of recently-developed parameter identification methods.