Near-Static Shading Exploration for Smart Photovoltaic Module Topologies Based on Snake-like Configurations

Variable shading due to clouds and nearby objects has a severe impact on the energy yield of photovoltaic installations. Due to the industry's standard of permanently series-connected cells in a photovoltaic (PV) module, partial shading creates mismatches between the Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics of cells. This article proposes an alternative configurable intramodule cell interconnection topology whereby cell connections can be adapted...