Sizing of Differential Power Processing Converters Based on In-Situ Meteorological Data for Non-Planar Photovoltaic Applications

Non-planar photovoltaic modules (NP-PV) is an emerging field with a variety of benefits to many applications. NP-PV blend in smoothly into different architectural features without disrupting the aesthetics of a building. Challenges with NP-PV include partial shading effects from neighboring objects, and current mismatch between neighboring PV cells due to the PV curvature. Literature on differential power processing (DPP) converter has shown promising results on reducing lost energy due to PV current mismatch in a PV system. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework to design power electronics converters for NP-PV structures considering: the morphology of the NP-PV structure, in-situ meteorological data, and current mismatch results based on gathered data. The benefit of this study is to size the DPP converters to be both reliable and cost-effective.