Abstract
Urban environments present a great potential to generate electricity with photovoltaic technology. However, this electricity cannot be fully harvested using conventional solar modules that have been designed for open landscapes. In urban environments, photovoltaic modules can often be subject to partial shading caused by trees and building structures. Therefore, new photovoltaic module concepts and designs must be explored to increase the shading tolerance of PV modules. This study proposes a simple yet effective approach to compare the potential of different module topologies for maximising the electrical yield of partially shaded photovoltaic systems. Using this approach, the annual electrical performance of various PV module topologies in different urban environments and climates is simulated and compared to determine the potential benefit of using photovoltaic modules with new topologies. Results suggest that the shading tolerance of conventional solar modules can be significantly improved by adding only a few bypass diodes or parallel interconnections. It is shown that the yield of a partially shaded PV system endowed with conventional solar modules could be increased as much as 25% when shading is caused by nearby obstructions.
Highlights
The deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems in urban environments has the potential to supply a significant share of the urban energy demand and to make a positive impact on different aspects of urban sustainability (Kammen and Sunter, 2016)
The topology of a half-cut cell PV module can be described as a series– parallel–series module with bypass diodes and should not be confused with B5-BPD in which all groups of cells are connected in series, nor with B5-SP in which all groups of cells are connected in parallel with each other
When PV modules are connected in series forming a string, the shading tolerance of the PV system is strongly constrained by the current mismatch between modules, regardless of the PV module topology
Summary
The deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems in urban environments has the potential to supply a significant share of the urban energy demand and to make a positive impact on different aspects of urban sustainability (Kammen and Sunter, 2016). A recent study, shows that PV modules manufactured with one bypass diode per cell can deliver 80 % more power than a conventional PV module when a row of cells is shaded (Hanifi et al, 2019) It is yet unclear how much additional electrical energy solar modules with multiple bypass diodes can generate in realistic scenarios compared to conventional modules throughout a year. This evaluation is complex since it requires the monitoring of different PV module topologies in different shading scenarios for long periods of time.
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