Identifying the parameters of solar photovoltaic (PV) cell models accurately and reliably is crucial for simulating, evaluating, and controlling PV systems. For this reason, we present an improved chimp optimization algorithm (IChOA) for the generation of precise and reliable solar PV cell models. As a new and improved version of the standard chimp optimization algorithm (ChOA), IChOA embeds two mutation rules in ChOA that include the elite opposition-based learning and visual search mechanism. The first rule is applied to strengthen global exploration capacity of ChOA, and the second one is utilized to enhance ChOA’s local exploitation ability (convergence accuracy). Based on the six benchmark test functions with different characteristics, the effectiveness of IChOA is evaluated by comparing to other five well-known optimization algorithms. The results suggest that IChOA offers superior performance over other competing algorithms. Finally, IChOA’s performance is confirmed through optimizing parameters for three widely employed mathematical models, specifically the single diode model, the double diode model, and the multi-cell PV modules. The findings prove the excellent performance of the suggested approach.