The rising levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere require the development of novel approaches to carbon management. Moreover, the installed capacity of photovoltaic (PV) systems is expanding at a considerable rate, resulting in a significant discrepancy between the generation of electricity from PV sources and the actual demand for electricity. The long-term storage of energy in molecules such as fuels or other industrially useful chemicals is of particular significance in counterbalancing the seasonal variations in photovoltaic power generation. The direct-coupled photovoltaic-electrochemical (PV-EC) system addresses these issues by converting excess PV energy into chemicals prior to feeding it to the grid. This enhances the utilization of photovoltaic power and improves grid stability. In this study, we have designed and tested a direct-coupled photovoltaic (PV) electrocatalytic (EC) device for the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H₂) (see Figure 1). The device employs emulated PV that reproduces the IV characteristics of real PV modules in the field at the most relevant irradiance and temperature combinations (Figure 1(a)). The characteristic operating points of the PV-EC were obtained using the NREL public database for silicon heterojunction (SHJ) modules installed in specific regions of the USA. The newly developed PV emulator routine enables the precise and accurate reproduction of any IV characteristic of a PV module, at a level comparable to that of a Class A+ solar simulator. In our study, a SHJ module with an emulated area of 44.5cm² drives a flow-type stack EC cell (area 9.5cm²) with a silver/gas diffusion layer (GDL) cathode and an iridium oxide anode (see Figure 1(b)). The operation of the PV-EC system was evaluated under dynamic conditions, represented by three sunny days in a cycling procedure. This procedure involved eleven steps of irradiance-temperature pairs, ranging from 0.2 Sun to 1.1 Sun and 20°C to 54°C, followed by idle 'night' periods. The operating voltages achieved were in the range of 2.4 to 3.2V, while the operating currents were between 70 and 335mA corresponding to current densities of 7.4 to 35.2mA/cm2. The solar-to-chemical efficiency was observed to range between 8.7 and 10.8% at a high degree of coupling (0.85 to 1) in the absence of power electronics. Finally, a consistent and stable dynamic operation towards CO as the primary product with 75% faradaic efficiency and H₂ (25%) as a by-product over one to three-day cycles was demonstrated. This coupling, in conjunction with the high selectivity towards CO, renders the approach an attractive one for the decentralized storage of excess PV energy, offering a material-saving route.