Power enhancement in PV arrays under partial shaded conditions with different array configuration

Solar Photovoltaic systems are used for electrical power generation, and they provide an alternative source to non-renewable energy sources like coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. Photovoltaic arrays used in PV systems may be subjected to partial shading conditions, thereby affecting power generation because of higher power mismatch losses. Due to an uneven distribution of irradiation condition, some of the bypass diodes turned on and affect the power generation in a photovoltaic array. The mismatch losses are due to the output from PV panels subjected to different irradiations because of non-uniform partial shading conditions. The power loss can be reduced by uniformly distributing the partially shaded condition over the entire PV array. In this work different shaped 4 × 4 array configuration is proposed to overcome the effect of partial shading condition, thereby providing lower mismatch losses. Simulations under different partial shading conditions are carried out using MATLAB Simulink, and the experimental setupis carried out for the proposed array configuration for 4 × 4 PV array and the results are discussed.