Reconfiguration of Partially Shaded Photovoltaic Arrays

Received: 10 April 2019 Accepted: 29 July 2019 Partial shading suppresses the output voltage and current of photovoltaic (PV) array, reduces the array efficiency and even causes the hot spot effect. To alleviate these negative effects, this paper proposes a new model of partially shaded PV arrays with different structures, and explores the effects of shading on the output features. On this basis, the PV array was reconfigured to weaken the shading effects. In addition, the fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) was improved to track the maximum power points (MPPs) of the reconfigured PV array. The improved FOA and reconfigured PV array were proved valid through simulations. The research results shed new light on the optimization of PV power generation under partial shading.

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