Performance enhancements and modelling of photovoltaic panel configurations during partial shading conditions

The growing focus on solar energy has led to an expansion of large solar energy projects globally. However, the appearance of shades in large-scale photovoltaic arrays drastically decreases the output power and several peaks of power in the P-V characteristics. The most commonly adopted total cross tie (TCT) interconnection patterns that effectively minimize mismatch losses are identified. Furthermore, the PV panels can be organized using electrical or physical reconfiguration methods to overcome these problems. The physical relocation methods are both practical and efficient to disperse the shadow. This work fits in this context, where the goal is to study the magic square view (MSV), the physical rearrangement of the PV module in a TCT scheme. The simulation results reveal the effectiveness of the MSV in scattering the shade over the whole photovoltaic array. For validation, four types of partial shading conditions (PSCs) patterns are considered and then compared with the TCT and the recently proved competence square (CS) techniques: short and wide (SW), long and wide (LW), long and narrow (LN), and short and narrow (SN) shading patterns. The MSV method is essential in improving the PV array's output power enhancement under shaded conditions. A very clear improvement is obtained in the long and wide partial shading pattern.