Optimal switch configuration design for reconfigurable photovoltaic modules

PV module reconfiguration techniques have been proposed to combat the partial shading effect. These techniques can adaptively change the PV module configuration according to the partial shading pattern. A reconfigurable PV module is designed by integrating three programmable switches with each PV macro-cell. The PV module reconfiguration is then realized by controlling the ON/OFF states of the switches. To reduce the additional capital cost induced by the switches, we propose to optimize the switch configurations, i.e., derive the required number of MOSFETs in each switch based on the maximum current passing through that switch, in a reconfigurable PV module. The optimal switch configuration design combined with the optimization of PV macro-cell size can make the reconfigurable PV module achieve the maximum performance enhancement under partial shading while satisfying the capital cost constraint of the PV module.