Reconfiguration of solar fields by means of forced activation of bypass diodes

Abstract

This paper proposes a method to recover energy losses occurring in partially shaded solar fields when the MPPT algorithm converge in a local maximum power point in place of the global maximum power point. The method is based on the observation that the distortion of the power voltage curve, and the appearance of multiple maxima, originates from the turning off of bypass diodes when, at increasing voltages, the current delivered by sunny modules becomes comparable with that delivered by shaded ones. Forced bypass of shaded modules smoothes the power voltage curve and allows the MPPT to reach the global maximum power point.