Efficiency improvement of non-uniformly aged PV arrays

Hu, Yihua and Zhang, Jiangfeng and Wu, Jiande and Cao, Wenping and Tian, Gui Yun and Kirtley, James L. (2016) Efficiency improvement of non-uniformly aged PV arrays. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. ISSN 0885-8993 (In Press)

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Abstract

The utilization of solar energy by photovoltaic (PV) systems have received much research and development (R&D) attention across the globe. In the past decades, a large number of PV array have been installed. Since the installed PV arrays often operate in harsh environments, non-uniform aging can occur and impact adversely on the performance of PV systems, especially in the middle and late periods of their service life. Due to the high cost of replacing aged PV modules by new modules, it is appealing to improve energy efficiency of aged PV systems. For this purpose, this paper presents a PV module reconfiguration strategy to achieve the maximum power generation from non-uniformly aged PV arrays without significant investment. The proposed reconfiguration strategy is based on the cell-unit structure of PV modules, the operating voltage limit of gird-connected converter, and the resulted bucket-effect of the maximum short circuit current. The objectives are to analyze all the potential reorganization options of the PV modules, find the maximum power point and express it in a proposition. This proposition is further developed into an easily implementable algorithm to calculate the maximum power generation and the corresponding reconfiguration of the PV modules. The immediate benefits from this reconfiguration are the increased total power output and maximum power point voltage information for global maximum power point tracking (MPPT). A PV array simulation model is used to illustrate the proposed method under three different cases. Furthermore, a 3×3 array experimental rig is built to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  • Item type:Article
    ID code:56002
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    16 March 2016
    Published
    16 March 2016
    Accepted
    Notes:(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.
    Subjects:Technology > Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
    Department:Faculty of Engineering > Electronic and Electrical Engineering
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:24 Mar 2016 15:58
    Last modified:11 Nov 2024 11:07
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/56002
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