Performance Investigation of Different PV Array Configurations at Partial Shading Condition for Maximum Power Output

Partial shading causes multiple peak points in power-voltage (P-V) curves of photovoltaic (PV) arrays, and that results in mismatch power loss (MML). In vast PV arrays, output power decreases significantly with increasing the shading size. The shading effects can be minimized by changing the array. This paper investigates the performances of different PV array configurations to obtain maximum output power for six different sizes of shading patterns. The experimental investigation is carried out using a 4×6 PV array with series-parallel (SP), total-cross-tied (TCT), ladder-diagram (LD), honey-comb (HC) and bridge-linked (BL) configurations. The results show that TCT configuration gives higher output power than other configurations. A comparative analysis is performed among the five configurations under different shading conditions for MML reduction and improvement of the percentage of recoverable energy (%RE). The TCT configuration yields a maximum %RE of 30.48% for a 4×6 PV array.