Maximising Energy Yield Using Global Maximum Power Point Tracking of Reconfigurable Photovoltaic Panel Array

Global maximum power point tracking is one of the most effective control based methods for maximising energy capture of fixed PV arrays and has been an active research since last decade. PV reconfiguration, on the other hand, is an upcoming area of research, which relies on the real time changing of hardware connections among PV panels in an array to maximise the energy output. However, there is no direct combination of these two methods in the existing literature, until this present work. Partial shading, quantified in terms of shading factor, highlights the benefits of the combination, which is quantified in terms of the increased energy yield versus shading factor graphs for a PV array with series-parallel panel connections.