Investigation on solar panels with and without shading effects in series and parallel connections

Abstract

Solar power is the change of vitality from daylight into power, either directly utilizing photovoltaic (PV), or in a roundabout way utilizing concentrated solar power. Since solar panels are the major alternate source of energy a survey has been taken to find out the impacts created by even small disturbances. Based on the survey results, it has been found that the performance of the solar panel is mostly affected due to the effects of shading caused by the trees and nearby buildings. Due to the shading in solar module hot spots are developed which may cause permanent damage to the cells that are shaded, hence affecting the performance of solar PV cells to a greater extent. With the help of available prototype model, an investigation has been done to find out the impacts created by shading. Results shows that the potential of solar cells is more without shading pattern and on further analysis a very small impact created by shading even partially on single solar cell totally affects the performance of solar PV panels. The power of the solar panel decreased when the load is increased. Thus, this paper describes the effect of shading on solar module with load conditions and also the shading effect was observed in both series and parallel connections. The output power of the series and parallel connection was compared.