ANALYSIS OF SHADING IMPACT FACTOR ON PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are very sensitive to shading effect. Unlike a solar thermal panel which can tolerate some shading, many brands of PV modules cannot even be operated by shadow of leave which resulted in high reduction of its output power. The effect of shading on solar PV models will be evaluated by using a simulation model for simulating both the I-V and P-V characteristics curves for PV panels. Different percentages of shading are taken into consideration of this paper which is: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and without shading. The irradiation and temperature are constant during test. The results are extracted using the Matlab software. A typical Kyocera-54W and Solara-130W solar modules are used in the simulation part. The output power of models is widely decreased as the shading percentage increased. The Shade Impact Factor (SIF) is proportional to area of panels, so the systems built with big panels were more affected by shading effect.