Study on Reducing Output Noise in APV Array of Solar Power Generation Systems

Solar cells have the drawback that their power generation capacity drops significantly when shaded. To address this issue, the authors have developed an Active PV (APV) array system that constantly controls the characteristics of the PV array itself to maintain ideal conditions under various external conditions and have demonstrated its effectiveness. In this APV system, noise generated during the scanning operation, which is unique to APV systems, was propagating to the PCS, causing noise there. Therefore, this paper proposes shifting the scanning operation to suppress this noise. As a result, multiple DC-DC converters that do not control the scanning operation will exist within the string; these solar cells will operate according to the voltage law at a voltage that cancels out the voltage fluctuations of the solar cells performing the scanning operation. The proposed method significantly reduces this noise, thereby minimizing the impact of noise during scanning operations and alleviating the load on the PCS.In this paper examines the effectiveness of the proposed method in reducing noise on the PCS side that occurs during the scanning operation of an APV system. Experiments demonstrated that the proposed method could suppress voltage fluctuations on the PCS side.