Experimenting with a Battery-Based Mitigation Technique for Coping with Predictable Partial Shading

Rosario Carbone and Cosimo Borrello
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Rosario Carbone: Department “dell’Informazione, delle Infrastrutture e dell’Energia Sostenibile” (D.I.I.E.S), University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Cosimo Borrello: Department “di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e dei Materiali” (D.I.C.E.A.M.), University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: In this paper, the authors propose to use batteries to improve the performance of grid-connected photovoltaic plants when their photovoltaic fields are subject to partial shading phenomena. Particular attention is devoted to predictable and repetitive partial shadings, such as those that often appear in urban residential environments. Firstly, battery packs with proper nominal voltage and capacity are connected in parallel to partially shaded photovoltaic submodules. Then, the shaded photovoltaic submodules are properly disconnected and connected to the respective photovoltaic string by using a “battery control unit”, which is operated by taking into account characteristics of the specific partial shading phenomenon to cope with. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, an experimental study is performed to compare the performances of two identical prototypal grid-connected photovoltaic generators subject to identical artificial and repetitive partial shadings. Only one of the photovoltaic generators is equipped with batteries together with their respective battery control unit, while the second one is simply equipped with conventional bypass diodes. The main advantages of the proposed technique are a greatly improved whole power generation together with the elimination of hotspot phenomena.

Keywords: PV plants; partial shadings; hotspot; bypass diodes; battery storage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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