The impact of energy yield of a photovoltaic system under partial shading

Abstract

Photovoltaic module is very susceptible to partial shading problem. In a photovoltaic power system, large number of photovoltaic modules are connected in series to provide required voltage and power. Due to large number of photovoltaic modules, the chances of every photovoltaic module to receive uniform solar irradiance become lower. Therefore, a photovoltaic system consists of large number of photovoltaic modules is even more susceptible to partial shading problem. This paper presents the investigation of the energy yield of a photovoltaic system under partial shading conditions. The investigation results shows that the energy yield of a photovoltaic system decreases as the shading heaviness increases. However, the effect is not constant. The effect is especially significant when the photovoltaic system is under lightly partial shaded conditions. In worst case, the energy yield of the photovoltaic system can drops up to 17.65 % as the shading heaviness increases by 20 %. Therefore, the partial shading need to be address in order to minimize the losses of the photovoltaic system under partial shading conditions. © 2018 Institution of Engineering and Technology. All rights reserved.