Performance Evaluation of a Partially Shaded PV cell with Different Bus Bars Configurations

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are facing many problems, most of them being related to environmental conditions. Among these, the partial shading, which impacts the maximum power generation capability is one of the most common ones and needs attention immediately. Some classic approaches to this problem involve: different array configuration, reconfiguration strategies, complex maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques, etc. In this paper we focus on the influence of the partial shading conditions over different types of cells. For this we consider the most common cell with 3 bus bars (BB) as the reference and study the performance of new types of cells with 4 BB and 5 BB. The starting point of the study is the two-diode model of the PV cell which is subjected to different shadow patterns.