Modular Voltage Equalizer Topology with Reduced Number of Switch Count for Enhancing the Energy Yield During Partial Shading Conditions For PV System

Partial Shading Condition (PSC) is one of the obstacles to the usage of PV devices, as with the activation of bypass diodes, the overall power extraction potential from PV is significantly reduced. Various types of modular voltage equalizer (VE) topologies have been identified in the literature, but the key concern is the increase in the number of control switches and other components, with an increase in the number of series-connected PV modules. In this paper, modular VE topology has been proposed to equalize the voltages between solar modules during PSCs, based on the hybrid combination of inductor and capacitor as storage elements. The key advantages of the proposed approach are open-loop control with fixed duty cycle and frequency, as well as the design simplicity. The simulation results show that for complex shading patterns, the proposed method successfully shunned the multiple peaks and improved the capacity of power extraction from PV by 35.25% on average. The experimental results showed an improvement in efficiency by 30.575% on average.