Analysing Partial Shading of PV Modules by Circuit Modelling

! 2 ! ! 2 !
Siyu Guo ' , Timothy Michael Walsh , Armin G. Aberle ' , and Marius Peters
I
Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Abstract - In most cases, solar cells within a PV module are building an equivalent circuit in Pspice environment. In Ref.
connected in series in order to generate a high voltage. The
[3], a MATLAB-based modelling was used to study the
series-connection is a limiting factor if a PV module is partially
effects of partial shading on PV array characteristics. It was
shaded, for example by nearby buildings, passing clouds or
wildlife. In a string of cells connected in series, the cell that concluded that array configuration significantly affects the
generates the smallest current limits the current of the whole maximum available power under partially shaded conditions.
string. Additionally, shaded cells operate in reverse bias and may, Past publications mainly focused on the partial shading effects
for example, show "hot spots" in case they are locally shunted.
under fixed shading conditions and didn't consider the
Bypass diodes are usually introduced to reduce such effects. The
bypass diode will ensure the operation of the module with
movement of a shadow. However, the movement of a shadow
partially or fully shaded cells, at the price of a reduced voltage is very common in real life. For example, the shadows caused
[I]. However, the number of bypass diodes in a module is by passing clouds, nearby buildings or trees usually move in a
typically limited, so that shading of one single cell will still affect certain direction during a given period of time. This paper
a significant percentage of the cells in the module.
introduces a reliable method to model the PV module
In this paper, distributed circuit simulations of a PV module
performance under a moving shadow.
under partial shading conditions are presented. The circuit is
modeled from one-diode elements and implemented in LTspice IV
[2]. The influence of different grades of shading on the current­
voltage characteristics and the output power of the module are
investigated. Also, different possible configurations of bypass
diodes are evaluated. Finally, a time-dependent model of a PV
module is constructed to simulate the modules' behavior if a
shadow moves across it. The shadow's moving direction is also
taken into consideration. It is observed that the choice of bypass
diode configuration has a strong influence on the performance of
a PV module under partial shading conditions.
Index Terms - solar cell, PV module, circuit model

I. INTRODUCTION
Today's grid-connected PV systems are frequently mounted
on building roofs, facades, or generally in urban
environments, where partial shading can be frequent [3]. Since
partial shading is an important factor that affects the output
power of a PV module, it is important to evaluate the module
performance under these conditions. To reduce losses due to
partial shading, typically bypass diodes are used. However,
the module behavior will then be more complex because the
bypass diode can help save the operation of the unshaded solar
cells and introduce another power peak in the lower voltage Fig. 1. The structure of (a) a PV module equipped with three bypass
region under partial shading conditions. Thus it is important to diodes and (b) a PY module equipped with five bypass diodes.

predict the maximum power point under partial shading

conditions.
Some work has already been done to investigate the partial
shading effects on PV modules. In Ref. [4], the electrical
effects of partial shading of a PV array were analyzed by a
pedagogic tool of the software PVsyst. And it showed that the
electrical shading effect is dependent on both the length of
strings and the number of strings in parallel. In Ref. [5] the
bypass diode configuration on PV modules was studied by
Most silicon wafer solar cell PV modules consist of 60 solar
cells connected in series. One common method to equip the
PV module with bypass diodes (Fig. lea)) employs a three
diode configuration. In this work we compare this method to
another easily realizable method which employs five bypass
diodes (Fig. l(b)). The models of PV modules with the two
different bypass diode configurations in Fig. 1 were built and
the corresponding PV module behavior under partial shading

978-1-4673-0066-7/12/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 002957

conditions was compared. The time-dependent maximum
power was calculated for a moving shadow. The influence of
the direction of movement of the shadow on the modules with
different bypass diode configurations was also investigated.
II. THEORY AND METHOD
In this work an integrated circuit model of a PV module is
constructed in LTspice. This software provides a variety of
electronic components, such as constant current sources,
constant voltage sources, resistors, diodes and capacitors. It
has been used before to build distributed circuit models of
solar cells and investigate effects of lateral inhomogeneities
[6].
In the model presented here, a PV module is composed of
60 solar cells connected in series. Each solar cell in the
module is represented by a one-diode model (the equivalent
circuit is shown in Fig. 2).
,
,
,
Rs : '--£=:J-....J
, III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
______�:� _________ J--
one diode model
Fig. 2. The equivalent circuit of a PV module built in LTspice. The
cells are connected in series, and each cell is represented by a one­
diode model. In the one-diode model,h is photo-current,D is a diode
that represents the p-n junction of a solar cell, Rsh is the shunt
resistance and Rs the series resistance.
After the electric circuit was "built", the bypass diodes were
introduced into the circuit. For the module with three bypass
diodes, there are twenty cells under each bypass diode, and for
the module with five bypass diodes, there are twelve cells
under each bypass diode. In order to model the module
behavior under a moving shadow, the current source of each
cell in LTspice was set to be time-dependent. When a shadow
passes a solar cell, the shaded area of a cell changes with time,
thus the photo-current of this cell is calculated by
h = ho(Acell - Ashade(t)) + lLOAshade(t)T*, (2)
where h is the photo-current of a solar cell, JLO is the photo­
current density of a solar cell without shading, Acel! is the total
area of a solar cell, Ashadlt) is the shaded area of a solar cell at
*
a certain time and T is the shadow transmittance.
Since the positions of different solar cells in a module are
different, their Ashadlt) is also different. By using this
equation, the relationship of photo-current and time for each
solar cell in the module can be obtained and implemented into
the time-dependent current source. Using this approach, the
PV module behavior depending on time can be calculated by
using a nonlinear transient analysis provided by the software.
A. Behavior of PV modules with different bypass diode
configurations
power-voltage characteristics

The one-diode model of a solar cell consists of a diode, a

current source, a lumped series resistance and a shunt
resistance. The current-voltage relation of a solar cell based on � 200
this model can be written as:
I-
(])
(1) �
§L 100r-------y---+-�---��---1--�
where J i s the output current density o f a solar cell, V i s its
terminal voltage, JL is the photo-current density, Jo the reverse
saturation current, n the constant diode ideality factor, Rs the
lumped series resistance, Rsh the shunt resistance, q the the
10 20 30 40
electronic charge ( 1 .6x 1 0-19 C), k the Boltzmann constant
(l.38x 1 O-23 11K) and Tthe cell temperature.
voltage [V]
In this simulation, all cell parameters were obtained by
Fig. 3. The power-voltage characteristics of PV modules with three
fitting the one-diode model to the current-voltage or five bypass diodes under the condition that one of the cells is
characteristics of a real solar cell. The cell parameters are completely shaded.
shown in Table I.
In this Section, two modules with different bypass diode
TABLE I configurations (shown in Fig. lea) and (b)) are compared.
PARAMETERS USED IN THIS SIMULATION While the module with three bypass diodes has 20 solar cells
Parameter Value Parameter Value per string, the module with five bypass diodes consists of five
39.9 mAlcm 10-
L "
JLO Jo Alcm strings of 1 2 solar cells each. One solar cell for a module of
n 1. 1 Rs 0.5 D.cm
2
each type is completely shaded and the corresponding power­
Rsh 2.4x 10) n.cm
"
T 298. 15 K voltage curves are plotted in Fig. 3.

978-1-4673-0066-7/12/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 002958

 It is observed that under this condition, the performance of C. The behavior of a PV module under a moving shadow
the PV module depends on the number of bypass diodes. This
In this Section, a moving shadow is taken into
is due to the fact that when one cell of a string is completely
consideration. We distinguish between two moving directions,
shaded, the whole string will be inactive. As a consequence,
as shown in Fig. 5 (a) and (b). The influence of the moving
when one solar cell of a module is completely shaded, the
direction on the PV modules with different bypass diode
output power is directly related to the number of cells in each
configurations was evaluated. In this case, a time-dependent
string. Since module with five bypass diodes contains fewer
model was built to investigate this problem by using time­
solar cells in each string, the performance will be better.
dependent current sources. In the situation of Fig. 5 (a), the
B. Influence from different grades of shading total moving time of the shadow was assumed to be five hours
(the shadow moves one solar cell's length in each half hour,
In this Section, the performance of the PV module for
assuming that there is no space between two adjacent cells). In
different grades of shading is investigated. In this the situation of Fig. 5 (b), the total moving time was 3 hours.
investigation only one cell of a module is shaded and the
transmittance of the shadow varies. The corresponding output
power for a module with 60 cells and three bypass diodes is
plotted in Fig. 4.

power-voltage characteristics
300 .---�--.---�--,---.--�---;
Shadow' � transmittan ce 1
- 1001%
- 7 5% a b
I

� 200 -- 50%

-- 25%
Fig. 5. (a) The shadow moves horizontally; (b) the shadow moves
vertically.
- 0%
L-
a.> The time-dependent maximum output power of a module
�
� 100 r-----��------��----_r---- ,� _1
with three bypass diodes and a module with five bypass diodes
under the situation of Fig. 5(a) is evaluated. In this case, the
shadow's transmittance is 20%. The time-dependent
maximum output power is calculated, which is shown in Fig. 6
and Fig. 7.
10 20 30 40 Results show that the modules with different bypass diode
voltage [V] configurations show different behavior under the same
moving shadow. This is because for the module with the three
Fig. 4. The power-voltage characteristics of the PV module with bypass diode configuration, the three strings of the module are
three bypass diodes and one cell shaded under different shadow all shaded from the start of the simulation. As a consequence,
transmittance.
from 0.5 h to 5 h, the output power just depends on the
shading area of a PV module and decreases gradually with an
As can be seen in Fig. 4, two regions exist in the power­ increasing shading area. However, for the module with five
voltage curves. In the lower voltage region, the module bypass diode configuration, the strings awere shaded
performance is not affected by the grade of shading. In the subsequently after 0 h, 1 h, 2 h, 3 h and 4 h, respectively. With
higher voltage region, the grade of shading has an influence the incorporation of bypass diodes, a second peak of output
on the characteristics. In the present example it is found that power is created in the lower voltage region because of the
for a shadow transmittance of above 67%, the maximum remaining unshaded strings. From Fig. 6, it can be seen that
power point (MPP) is in the higher voltage region, the power the output power of the module with five bypass diodes is
peak is proportional to the shadow transmittance and the larger than the output power of the module with three bypass
bypass diodes are not in operation. For a shadow transmittance diodes during 0.2 h to 3. 1 h. This is because that for the
of less than 67%, the MPP is in the lower voltage region and module with five bypass diodes, bypass diodes take into effect
the bypass diodes are "on". If the two peaks are of the same during this period and help reduce power losses effectively.
value, we have: The time-dependent maximum output power was also
evaluated under the situation shown in Fig. 5(b) (shown in
Po x T* = Po x �
3
(3) Fig. 7). In this case, the perfonnance of the module with three
bypass diodes was better than that of the module with five
where Po is the MPP of a PV module without shading. bypass diodes due to the same reasons as described before.
Thus transmittance is equal to 67% when the two power This investigation shows that for partial shading conditions
peaks are of the same value for the PV module with three the choice of bypass configuration can be more important than
bypass diodes. the number of bypass diodes.

978-1-4673-0066-7/12/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 002959

 module under different grades of shading was investigated.

300 Two different possible bypass diode configurations were

-- modulewi h 5 bypa s diodes k evaluated. Also, a time-dependent model was developed to

250
l model the performance of a PV module in the case of a
---- rmodulewi h 3 bvoa s diodes
shadow moving across the module. We found that the
.\ configurations of the bypass diodes have a strong influence on
� 200 I
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-
r- the performance of a PV module under partial shading
......
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I conditions. PV modules with more bypass diodes are shown to
� 150 1
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I perform better under the condition that only one string of a
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module is shaded. However, it is found that for shadows that
100
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0... I
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+ \ move in a certain direction, the bypass configuration has a
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greater influence than the number of bypass diodes used. This
�
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50 ----j----
---j-----
-- should be taken into account when installing PV modules in
1
3.0
conditions for which known shadows occur.
0.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 5.0
1

Future works will refine the model to take into account non­
time [h] idealized shading conditions and optimum bypass
configurations will be obtained. Starting from the single PV
module, more modules can also be included into the model, to
Fig. 6. The relationship between maximum power and time under
the condition shown in Fig. 5(a) for a shadow with 20%
simulate PV systems.
transmittance.

300 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

-- mOd lewith 5 bypa S diodes � � The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS)
250 J.
- - - mod lewith 3 bypa�s diodes_.

�-
_ - is sponsored by the National University of Singapore (NUS)
and Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF) through
�200 r -I- + -- II the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).
...... \ _
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- - - -- - ,
'- I

CD 150 I
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REFERENCES
�0...
I
I
I

100
I
[I] L. Castaner and S. Silvestre, "Modelling photovoltaic systems
\\ I I
I
using PSpice",John Wiley & Sons,Ltd.,2002,New York
I
I

,--- - ---- -I [2] M. Engelhardt, LTspice/SwitcherCAD IV. Linear Technology

50
,
Corp. (20II)
[3] H. Patel and V. Agarwal, "MATLAB-based modeling to study
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
I

the effects of partial shading on PV array characteristics",iEEE

time [h] [4]

Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 23,pp.302-310,2008.
A. Mermoud and T. Lejeune, "Partial shading on PV arrays: by­
pass diode benefits analysis", in 25th European Photovoltaic
Fig. 7. The relationship between maximum power and time under
Solar Energy Conference, 2010,pp. 4654-4658.
the condition shown in Fig. 5(b) for a shadow with 20%
[5] S. Silvestre, A. Boronat and A. Chouder, "Study of bypass
transmittance.
diodes configuration on PV modules",Applied Energy, vol. 86,
pp. 1632-1640,2009.
[6] D. Grote,"Analyses of silicon solar cells and their measurement
IV. SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
methods by distributed, circuit simulations and by experiment",

In this work, a model of a PV module was built in LTspice PhD thesis,University of Konstanz,Germany,2010.

to investigate shading effects. The performance of a PV

978-1-4673-0066-7/12/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 002960