Experimental Verification of Reconfiguration Method for Series-parallel Connection of PV Modules under Partial Shading

Power generation efficiency of a PV system could be significantly reduced under non-uniform distributions of solar irradiance. The authors have proposed the reconfiguration method of PV modules to improve power generation efficiency of a PV array. This paper verifies the proposed reconfiguration method by two experiments. In the first experiment, I-V curves of PV array before and after the reconfiguration are measured and compared the maximum output power. In the second experiment, the output power of PV array is regulated by the buck converter. The current and voltage at the input and output terminals of buck converter is measured to evaluate the response of reconfiguration. As experimental results, the maximum output power after the reconfiguration of PV array is improved by up to 28.9%. The response time of reconfiguration is about 50 ms and the output voltage drops by 10.8%.