Evaluating Static Reconfiguration at the Cell Level as an Alternative Solution to Issues with Partial Shading of PV Systems

The growing interest for the renewable energy source solar energy has made the different photovoltaic techniques develop at a rapid pace. One of the greatest challenges to overcome when it comes to solar energy, is that it is weather dependent and highly affected by shading. Various techniques exist to reduce the impacts of shading. To prevent damage of cells caused by hotspots, bypass diodes could be connected. The shingle and half-cut modules are under great development and better at handling the losses from shading than conventional modules. In arrays of modules, the choice of interconnection between modules can affect the performance of the system during partial shading. Alternative interconnections are also the foundation of static reconfiguration algorithms. Modules are repositioned while the electrical wiring remains the same, dispersing the shade on the array and reducing mismatch losses. This can theoretically also be used for cells in a module, to make a module more resistant towards shading. This was simulated and confirmed with experiments in this study. The findings are that static reconfigurationon cell-level gave a higher power output than un-reconfigured modules, in theory. However, even though it would be practically possible it would require complicated connections between cells and long cables.