A zero switch and sensorless reconfiguration approach for sustainable operation of roof-top photovoltaic system during partial shading

Photovoltaic (PV) roof-top systems in real-time environments are highly susceptible to the commonly occurring scenario of partial shading that occurs due to unavoidable conditions such as the shadow of buildings and trees. The occurrence of partial shading creates a serious mismatch among the modules of PV arrays that results in severe unexpected power losses in PV arrays. The conventional and hybrid configurations used for loss mitigation in PV arrays are sometimes unreliable and incapable of generating higher power during partial shading. Hence, this paper focuses on the development of a simple and effective technique for the reliable operation of PV arrays and loss reduction during the occurrence of partial shading. The technique is applicable to arbitrary array sizes having no dynamic parts and requires no switches and sensors for implementation to enhance the performance and operation of the system. The performance and reliability of the technique have been investigated under MATLAB simulation and real-time scenarios by comparing it with various configurations under shading. The investigation reveals a higher power output by the proposed technique with an average conversion efficiency of higher than 90% and power enhancement of 19.07% than other configurations.