Stable Operation of an Automotive Photovoltaic System under Moving Shadows

An automotive photovoltaic (PV) system using an isolated modular boost converter (IMBC) on an electric vehicle is fabricated. The PV system prototype can not only keep generating power from the sun under partial shade, but also charge low-voltage PV power to the high voltage battery. The PV system prototype generated 4.11 kWh in 8 hours under actual sunlight. In addition, partial shade experiment was performed to clarify the influence to distributed maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control that deployed to the IMBC. It was confirmed that more power was generated under a shadow covering the long side of the PV strings than under a shadow covering the short side of the PV strings since the voltage of optimal operating point of PV module changes less.