A new approach of PV system structure to enhance performance of PV generator under partial shading effect

Abstract The PV generator performance depends closely on the weather conditions, especially on solar irradiance. Besides, the partial shading effects still one of the most complicated problems that have a direct impact on the PV performance in terms of power output, multiple peaks exhibition on the power–voltage (P–V) characteristic curve, and hot-phenomena occurrence. In this paper, an efficient PV system structure has been proposed in order to enhance the performance of the PV generator under the partial shading effect. In such a way, the proposed PV structure will overcome mainly the following major partial shading effect problems: eliminating the local multiple peaks exhibition on the characteristic curve and increase the power output yield of the PV generator. On the other hand, the impact of hot-spot phenomena is reduced as well which leads to an increased in PV generator lifespan. On referring to the literature, many maximal power point tracking (MPPT) techniques have been developed in view to track the global maximal power point GMPP, alongside with proposing several PV configurations and arrangements to increase the power output yield and eliminate the local maximal power peaks (LMPPs). This paper intends to compare and discuss these techniques and configurations individually and by combining them in terms of effectiveness, complexity and cost ... etc. In which, this comparison ends up by selecting and proposing a suitable PV system structure that can mitigate the partial shading effect with high cost-effectiveness.