Solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems have been introduced in a wide range of building applications. For building integrated applications, the solar cell array is often designed with various shapes. In some cases, part of the solar cell array may be disproportionately shaded or have different slopes and azimuth angles. These systems can have irregular power generation characteristics. If the power outputs from the PV modules in the same array are uneven, the output characteristics can be considerably degraded for certain module wiring configurations.

The authors conducted comparison studies to investigate how an array’s power generation output varies according to the PV module coupling in partial shadows and different orientations and inclinations. The results showed that the PV modules of the arrays connected in parallel only decreased 1% to 3%, while those connected in series decrease up to 24%.

Units: SI