Simulation study of partial shading effect on series, parallel and series-parallel connected PV modules

A mathematical model of photovoltaic (PV) cell based on single diode model has developed using Matlab/Simulink. The model has option to simulate the Output Power versus Output Voltage (P-V) and Output Current versus Output Voltage (I-V) characteristics of PV cell under the effect of uniform/partial changes in irradiations and also under the effect of change in operating temperature, series resistance, shunt resistance, ideality factor of the PV cell. The simulation results of PV cell, PV module and different arrangements of PV modules under various operating conditions has included and investigation on the effect of partial shading on PV array also is discussed in this paper.