Performance Assessment of Vehicle-Integrated Photovoltaic Module Designs under Dynamic Shading Conditions

This paper investigates the impact of module architecture, cell orientation and interconnection on the performance of vehicle-integrated photovoltaic (VIPV) systems under dynamic shading. High-frequency image acquisition and electrical simulations were conducted using realistic shading scenarios recorded from a vehicle’s trajectory. Eight configurations, combining cell orientation, interconnection topology, and module partitioning, were analyzed through IV curve simulations and P&O-based MPPT evaluation. Results show that total cross-tied (TCT) connections consistently outperform series connections, while mini-modules offer marginal yield improvements. The energy losses due to different reasons were classified and quantified, finding mismatch losses between 12 and 8%. Findings highlight that shading patterns are evenly distributed across the PV surface, leading to similar MPPT behavior across modules, with high algorithm efficiencies at reasonable perturbation periods (95% with 100 ms perturbation periods). These insights provide a foundation for optimizing VIPV system design under realistic operating conditions.