SSR - Solar Shadow Recover
Responsible:
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Start date: 2011-03-01
Length: 24 months
Project abstract
Layouts of domestic photovoltaic solar plants can be problematic due to obstacles that shade panels. This limits the total available area and, if not adequately considered, can deeply affect the efficiency of the plant. Micro-inverters equipped with a maximum power point tracker can be applied to the single panels composing a plant, and this architecture partially solves drawbacks due to shading. However, problems due to partial shading of a single panel remain unsolved.
SSR will study and realize a solution that recovers efficiency when a small number of cells of a panel are partially or totally shaded. The SSR circuit is constituted by DC/DC converters that are connected in parallel to cells and that balance power generation. The target of SSR should be the integration of the DC/DC converters and of the related “electronics” into a single chip located on the solar cell itself.
Unfortunately this target is too ambitious nowadays, since current technologies do not allow the integration of power components with low power ones and do not operate at the extremely low voltage level of the solar cells (about 600 mV maximum voltage). The feasible targer of SSR is a possible implementation that acts on macro sections of the panel composed of several cells connected in series to obtain a voltage level suited to supply the electronics. Discrete components are used for the power section and integrated ones for the other parts related to control and driving circuits.
A prototype of SSR will be implemented of a PCB and fully tested to verify effeiciency increase in energy production under panel partial shasing. SSR can potentially have an impact on the production of new generation panels by increasing energy production efficiency under partial shading conditions. This allows more freedom in the design of the domestic photovoltaic plant, particularly in urban areas.
SSR will study and realize a solution that recovers efficiency when a small number of cells of a panel are partially or totally shaded. The SSR circuit is constituted by DC/DC converters that are connected in parallel to cells and that balance power generation. The target of SSR should be the integration of the DC/DC converters and of the related “electronics” into a single chip located on the solar cell itself.
Unfortunately this target is too ambitious nowadays, since current technologies do not allow the integration of power components with low power ones and do not operate at the extremely low voltage level of the solar cells (about 600 mV maximum voltage). The feasible targer of SSR is a possible implementation that acts on macro sections of the panel composed of several cells connected in series to obtain a voltage level suited to supply the electronics. Discrete components are used for the power section and integrated ones for the other parts related to control and driving circuits.
A prototype of SSR will be implemented of a PCB and fully tested to verify effeiciency increase in energy production under panel partial shasing. SSR can potentially have an impact on the production of new generation panels by increasing energy production efficiency under partial shading conditions. This allows more freedom in the design of the domestic photovoltaic plant, particularly in urban areas.