Modeling and Performance Investigations of Partially Shaded Solar PV Arrays with Cell Partition Technique based Modules

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV) modules consist of solar cells connected in series to provide the required output power. The solar PV system is experiencing major challenges, which are mainly due to the partial shadows on the photovoltaic modules leading to mismatching power loss and hot spot problems. Hotspots have become a major cause of PV module failure. The Cell Partition Technique (CPT) is proposed to reduce hotspots and minimize mismatch losses caused by partial shadings. Specifically, each solar PV cell (Full cell) in a solar PV module is divided or partitioned into two half cells (known as Half-Cut Cells or HC) and three equal cells (known as Tri-Cut Cells or TC) in accordance with the proposed technique. The HC and TC types of cells are connected in a strings of series-parallel connection, and bypass diode is placed in middle of the solar PV module to ensure proper operation. The primary aim of this research is to model, evaluate, and investigate the performance of solar PV arrays using new PV modules are developed based on Cell Partition Technique (PVM-CPT), such as half-cut cell modules (HCM), and tri-cut cell modules (TCM) and compared with full-sized cell modules (FCM). These PVM-CPT are connected in Series–Parallel (SP), Total-Cross-Tied (TCT), and proposed static shade dispersion based TCT reconfiguration (SD-TCTR) for the array sizes of 3x4, 4x3 and 4x4, respectively. The purpose is to select the most appropriate solar PV array configurations in terms of the highest global maximum power and thus the lowest mismatch power losses under short and narrow, short and wide, long and narrow, long and wide type of cell level partial shadings. The Matlab/Simulink software is used to simulate and analyze all of the shading cases. The results show that, when compared to conventional module configurations under different shading conditions, the proposed static SD-TCTR arrangement with TC modules (SDTCTR-TCM) exhibits the lowest mismatch power losses and the greatest improvement in array power.