Assessment of Methods to Limit The Impact of Hot Spot Phenomenon on Photovoltaic Power

Most solar systems consist of small power, low voltage panels connected in series or parallel to increase voltage and power. However, connecting the panels in series can lead to certain operational limitations. In the case where the panels are partially shaded by clouds, trees, or damaged elements, the current flowing through the solar system is reduced to the level of weakest panel in the string. The paper introduces the distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) model to obtain the maximum power of the solar system when working in shaded conditions. PSIM software is used to evaluate the performance of the DMPPT model for a solar system consisting of 4 TP250MBZ panels. The simulation results show that when the shading occurs, the use of the DMPPT model will obtain a higher power than the central maximum power point tracking model (CMPPT).