Parallel-connected solar arrays

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the advantages of having various series-parallel configurations of solar arrays and make a comparison between them. The objective is to determine the best PV system configuration and thus improve the overall efficiency of a solar array. The primary focus of this thesis is to study the parallel connection of PV panels for achieving maximum efficiency while extracting maximum energy from the solar radiation. A comparison between a series connected and a parallel connected solar PV array justifies the need for installing a parallel configured solar PV array to achieve optimum performance. The DC-DC converter plays an important role in delivering maximum power to the load. A solar sensor array was used to monitor the solar radiation under various climatic conditions. Data saved using these sensors was then analyzed using software developed with MATLAB's Graphical User Interface (GUI) platform. The PV-cell equations cannot be solved with the ordinary numerical method due to both the complexity and their non-linearity. These calculation were simplified through using the Newton-Raphson (NR) method along with other numerical approximation approaches. The software package is capable of displaying a number of curves including the I-V characteristic, the output power, and the output energy of the PV-panels for different configurations. Various scenarios were simulated and compared under different climatic conditions. The proposed method for parallel configured PV panel was found to be an alternative to existing methods.