REDUCING MISMATCH LOSSES IN GRID-CONNECTED RESIDENTIAL BIPV ARRAYS USING ACTIVE POWER CONVERSION COMPONENTS

Damien Picault (1) , Bertrand Raison (1) , Seddik Bacha (1)

1 G2ELab - Laboratoire de Génie Electrique de Grenoble

Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) have seen an impressive development throughout the world this last decade. In France, photovoltaic (PV) installations under 3 kWp represent 90% of the plants in service as of 2009, and count for 42% of the national installed photovoltaic power [1]. Residential BIPV installations are not only characterized by there relatively small peak power but also by their sensitivity to perturbed environmental conditions such as partial shading. Partial shading of BIPV plants can be caused by several factors such as nearby trees, chimneys or buildings, consequently causing PV module mismatch losses. Such losses are mainly due to the dispersion in electrical characteristics of interconnected modules which leads to significant decrease in plant energy production. The introduction of additional power converters in the plant layout intends to reduce the influence of one module on the entire installation, thus reducing module mismatch. In this work, five grid-connected PV installation topologies: centralized inverter, string inverter, module inverter, parallel connected choppers with centralized inverter, series connected choppers with centralized inverter are presented and compared. Furthermore, average modelling of Boost DC-DC converters and grid-connected inverters with their associated control strategies are proposed. Performance analysis of these topologies is carried out through normal operation and two partially shaded scenarios representing chimney and nearby building induced shade. Simulations using the proposed average models have been implemented in Matlab/Simulink© environment for each topology using a 3 kWp rooftop-type plant. Simulation results show that a considerable amount of additional solar generated energy can be grid-fed using alternative plant layouts.

Domaines: Energie électrique

Damien Picault, Bertrand Raison, Seddik Bacha. REDUCING MISMATCH LOSSES IN GRID-CONNECTED RESIDENTIAL BIPV ARRAYS USING ACTIVE POWER CONVERSION COMPONENTS. European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference 2010 (EUPVSEC'2010), Sep 2010, Valence, Spain. ⟨hal-00517713⟩