Dynamic Modeling of Partial Shading on

Photovoltaic Arrays

Yang Haoyuan, Yan Shuo, Siew-Chong Tan, S.Y.R. Hui

Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
The University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Email: hyyang@hku.hk

Abstract—Static partial shading on large photovoltaic arrays
has already been modeled by many researchers over the last two
decades. However, little research has been devoted to dynamic
partial shading that is more realistic in practice. This project
investigates an efficient MATLAB-based model that incorporates
the dynamic characteristics of a photovoltaic (PV) module under a
non-ideal moving shadow which has different degrees of shading.
It is found that shadows with the same shape and transmittance
configuration but different moving characteristics (such as initial
point, speed and path) could transform the power-voltage curve
of a PV array in different ways. This dynamic model can be
used as a common platform to evaluate the effectiveness of
the different MPP tracking algorithms and controllers under
dynamically moving shadow conditions. Experimental results
have been obtained to validate the model.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Renewable energy sources, e.g. photovoltaic (PV) energy,
have been brought to spotlight due to the increasing demand
for low-cost and environmental-friendly energy. Nowadays,
though suffering from relatively high price, PV panels are
widely installed in various sites from urban architecture to
desert landscape. However, partial shading, ascribed to low-
transmittance cloud or shadow of the building, deteriorates the
output power of the PV module dramatically. Bypass diodes
are introduced to: (a) improve the energy harvest performance
of the PV modules, (b) protect solar cell from breakdown
issues [1]. Thus, it is imperative to have insight into the
prediction of P-V and I-V characteristics of the PV modules
under partial shading conditions with the incorporation of
bypass diodes.
The effects of partial shading on PV modules have already
been modeled and investigated by several researchers. Hiren
Patel and Vivek Agarwal have proposed a MATLAB-based
model to simulate the P-V and I-V characteristics of a PV
array under partial shading conditions. It has been found
that the global maximum power point is related to the PV
array configuration and shading pattern [2]. PVsyst-a useful
educative software-was used to study the effects of partial
shading on PV system and it was concluded that the effects
were dependent on the size of the PV array [3]. Other popular
spice-based software, such as Pspice [4] and LTspice [5] was
adopted to establish circuit model incorporating partial shading
effects. Past papers focus exclusively on static shading pattern
and there are few papers analyzing the effects of dynamic
shading pattern. In [5], Guo Siyu et al. modelled the module
behavior under a moving idealized shadow by setting the
equivalent current source to be time-dependent. It showed that
the maximum output power was associated with the choice
of bypass configuration and moving direction of the shadow.
However, it has not taken into account non-idealized shading
conditions with random shape and arbitrary moving trajectory,
which happens commonly in practice.
This paper introduces a MATLAB-based dynamic model to
simulate the dynamic characteristics of a PV module shaded by
any non-ideal moving shadow, with such shadow being of any
irregular shape and following any arbitrary movement. Based
on this dynamic shading model, the P-V characteristics of a
PV module under any dynamically moving shading pattern can
be generated as a 3-dimensional surface with time. Therefore,
the same dynamically changing multiple maximum power
points P-V profile can be used as a common platform for
testing different MPPT algorithms and controllers. A full set of
experimental results have been obtained to validate the model.
II. M ODEL OF PV A RRAY W ITH B YPASS D IODES
The single-diode model of a PV cell without bypass diode
is composed of a photo-generated current source Iph , a diode
Dcell , a shunt resistance component Rsh and a series resistance
component Rs , as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit of a PV cell using single-diode model
The governing equation of the relationship between the
output current i and voltage v is:
v+iRs v + iRs
i = Iph − Io (e ns Vt − 1) − (1)
Rsh
where Vt represents the junction thermal voltage that is deter-
mined by equation (2), Io stands for the dark saturation current
while ns is the number of cells in series.

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 12

10

Output current (A)

6

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Output voltage (V)
(a) I-V characteristics
Fig. 2. Conduction state transformation of 3 bypass diodes

800

AkT 700
Vt = (2)
q Output power (W)
600

In (2), A is the diode quality factor, k is Boltzmann’s 500

constant, q is the charge of the electron, and T is the cell
working temperature. 400

The model of a PV cell with bypass diode is simply derived 300

by adding a parallel diode Dbypass to the output port of a
cell. The diode Dbypass is forward-biased with negative output 200
voltage v, which occurs when a series-connected PV module is
partially shaded, as shown in Fig. 2. As the output voltage v in- 100
creases gradually, the conducting states of Dbypass1 , Dbypass2
and Dbypass3 changes accordingly. Fig. 2 presents the whole 0
transformation process using different combination of colors, 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
green for forward-biased and red for reversed-biased. It can Output voltage (V)
be seen that the bypass diodes turn off orderly in descending (b) P-V characteristic
sequence of irradiation levels.
Fig. 3. Output characteristics of a 3 × 3 PV array under T1 & G1

III. S IMULATION P ROCEDURE

STC1 ). The model is a function with n, m, T and G as inputs,
The process of establishing the model is divided into three and power of the array, current of the array and voltage of the
parts, namely static PV partial shading model, shading model, array as outputs. Fig. 3 shows the simulation result of a 3 × 3
and output model. Detailed illustration of each part is as PV array under condition specified by temperature matrix T1
follows. and irradiation matrix G1.
   
A. Static PV Partial Shading Model 25 25 25 0.5 0.5 1
T1 = 25 25 25 , G1 = 0.5 1 1
Static PV partial shading model is designed to present the 25 25 25 1 1 1
P-V (or I-V) curve in the response to different fixed climatic
conditions, e.g. irradiation, temperature and etc. To achieve Compared to the static PV partial model proposed in [2],
this, the whole PV panel array is divided into n subassemblies this model has the following prominent advantages:
each of which is composed of m square panels, i.e. an n ×
m array. The climatic conditions are defined by two n × m 1 The standard testing conditions (STC) to measure the electrical properties
matrices T and G, in which the T accounts for temperature of PV cells or modules. The irradiation level is 1000W/m2 , with the cell
and the G for relative irradiation (compare to the irradiation at working temperature of 25◦ C.

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 800
700
600
Output power (W)
500
400
300
Proposed refined model
200 Model with Rsh
Model in [2]
100 Model with V D
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Output voltage (V)
Fig. 4. Comparison result between refined model and model in [2]
1) It takes into account the shunt resistance, which was
omitted in [2]. From Fig. 4, the shunt resistance not
only decreases the magnitude of multiple MPPs (due
to the power loss dissipated in Rsh ), but introduces
lag effect to the correspondent output voltage of each
MPP.
2) Forward voltage drop of the bypass diode VD is con-
sidered in this model. It can be concluded from Fig.
4 that the magnitude of MPPs are slightly diminished
by the drop.
3) This model introduces stochastic parameters, e.g.
temperature coefficient of short current, to the anal-
ysis of the static characteristics of a PV array.
4) The curves are much more smooth and accurate as a
result of increased curve points.
B. Shading Model
To acquire the dynamic characteristics of a PV array, it
is essential to create a model that considers the movement of
the shading by generating a series of matrices describing the
speed, direction and shape of the shading.
To begin with, a simple case is illustrated with just one
unit of shaded area (shadow) moving from the southwest side
of a 3 × 3 PV array as shown in Fig. 5. If the coordinate
axes are established by choosing the lower left PV cell as
the original point, the top right point of the unit shadow will
become the effective point (red dot). Due to the movement of
the shadow, the coordinate of the effective point is a function
of time t. Thus, the relative dynamic coordinate vectors are
calculated by adding the two time-varying vectors xt and
yt , which are used to describe the direction and the speed
of the movement. The irradiation matrix is then generated
by comparing the relative dynamic coordinate vectors with
boundary conditions determined by PV array coordinates. This
method can be simply generalized by dividing any irregularly-
shaped shadow into several unit shadows.
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Fig. 5. Unit shading moving toward a 3 × 3 PV array
C. Output Model
The basic concept of the static PV partial shading model
and shading model proposed can now be incorporated to
analyze the dynamic characteristics of a PV array under a
moving shadow in the time domain. The dynamic shading
model is capable of presenting the P-V curves under different
irradiation conditions, a 3D diagram of which the x-axis is
time t, y-axis is output voltage V , and z-axis is output power
P.
IV. S IMULATION R ESULT AND A NALYSIS
To justify the model for an irregular shadow, an 8 × 6
PV array presented in Fig. 6 is set up as an example. Dots
of different colors in Fig. 6 represent different movement
trajectories. The green dots and the red dots represent two
different paths. They are numbered to show the sequence of
movements. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that shadows with same
shape and transmittance configuration but different moving
characteristics (such as initial point, speed and path) result
in different P-V curves of a PV array.
The time span of shading movements for the path indicated
by the red dots is 15 seconds and that for the green dots is 10
seconds. Assuming maximum power point tracking (MPPT)
is adopted, the total energy harvested under the 3 conditions
of dynamic partial shading (path represented by red dots and
green dots) and no shading (reference) are calculated and
presented in Table I. The dynamic partial shading along the
red-dot path exhibits the lowest harvested energy as a result
of both prolonged exposure to shading and deep penetrated
depth. The PV curves of green-dot path are slightly changed
in that nearly 1/3 of the shading hardly ever influence the
PV array during the movement. In addition to these stark
differences, there is some similar pattern existed. For the red-
dot path, the PV curves are identical when t=6s and t=7s, as
highlighted in the two black lines in Fig. 7(a). The reason
behind this is that the shading locates totally inside the PV
array boundaries at t=6s and t=7s. Similar pattern can be found
in Fig 7(b) when t=5s and 6s. In fact, when an irregularly-
shaped shadow is entirely embedded in the PV array (red path)
or partially enclosed by the PV array (green path), the output
characteristics of the PV array remain the same no matter
where exactly the shadow locates, as indicated by the black
 (a) 8 × 6 PV array (b) irregular shading pattern

Fig. 6. 8 × 6 PV array and irregular shading pattern

(a) path specified by red dots (b) path specified by green dots

Fig. 7. Simulation results of different moving trajectories

TABLE I. E NERGY HARVESTED UNDER DYNAMIC PARTIAL SHADING

AND NO SHADING SITUATION
V. C OMPARISON BETWEEN A LGEBRAIC M ODEL AND
C IRCUIT M ODEL
Path Color Red Green Reference
Energy Harvested (×105 J) 1.0741 1.1444 1.3235
Using MATLAB/Simulink, it is convenient to establish the
circuit model of a 1 × 3 PV array which matches the actual
experimental setup. Partial shading model could be achieved by
changing the irradiation of each PV cell. The simulation results
of the algebraic model proposed in Section IV and the circuit
model are shown by Fig. 8. The energy harvested, i.e. the sum
lines in Fig. 7(a) and Fig. 7(b). This behavior starts to change of the magnitude of each MPP, is also calculated and presented
when the shadow moves to the borders of the PV array. In in Table II. From Fig. 8, the curves acquired by two kinds of
summary, the output characteristics change distinctly during model overlap perfectly with each other, which demonstrates
the arrival and departure processes of the shadow while remain the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed dynamic model.
unchanged during lingering process. The discrepancy between the total energy harvested may be

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Fig. 8. Simulated P-V curves based on the algebraic model and equivalent (a) experimental set-up
circuit model over a time period

TABLE II. T OTAL ENERGY HARVESTED OF DIFFERENT MODELS

Model Algebraic Model Circuit Model

Energy Harvested (×103 J) 1.8311 1.8295
70
60
ascribed to the conduction resistance Ron and RC snubber
Output power (W)

50
circuit of bypass diodes considered in circuit model.
40

VI. E XPERIMENT VALIDATION OF THE M ODEL 30

20
To practically validate the dynamic model, an experimental
10
set-up in Fig. 9(a) has been constructed. The shading effect
is achieved by manipulating the voltage and consequently the 0
light intensity of three Halogen lamp matrixes. Fig. 9(b) shows 60 50
the experiment results and the simulation result. The simulation 40
40
30
result is based on normalization of correlation between voltage 20
20
and light intensity generated by Halogen lamp. From Fig. 9(b), 10
Output voltage (V) 0 0 Time (s)
the experiment results are consistent with the simulation results
not only in the general trend of the P-V surface variations but
the specific power level, which demonstrates the efficiency and (b) experimental result
accuracy of the model.
Fig. 9. Experiment set-up and experiment result

VII. C ONCLUSION
In this project, a modeling method for dynamic partial
shading on PV array is presented. Firstly, several improve-
ments have been introduced to improve an existing static
PV partial shading model. The refined static model shows
more accurate simulation results than the original model.
Then, a method to acquire the P-V and I-V characteristics
of a PV array under irregularly-shaped and arbitrarily moving
shadow has been developed. It has been found that the P-
V curves change significantly in response to shadow with
different moving trajectories and transmittance. Similar con-
clusion applies to the shading affects the PV array during the
arrival and departure process of the moving shadow. Moreover,
comparison between the algebraic model and circuit model
using MATLAB/Simulink together with the experiment results
prove the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed model. Thus
this model can not only be used to evaluate the effectiveness of
the MPP tracking algorithm under moving shading conditions,
but act as a guiding tool to the design of MPP tracking
schemes.
R EFERENCES
[1] S. Vemuru, P. Singh, and M. Niamat, “Modeling impact of bypass
diodes on photovoltaic cell performance under partial shading,” in Elec-
tro/Information Technology (EIT), 2012 IEEE International Conference
on, May 2012, pp. 1–5.
[2] H. Patel and V. Agarwal, “Matlab-based modeling to study the effects
of partial shading on pv array characteristics,” Energy Conversion, IEEE
Transactions on, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 302–310, March 2008.
[3] A. Mermoud and T. Lejeune, “Partial shadings on pv arrays: by-pass
diode benefits analysis,” in 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy
Conference, 2010, pp. 4654 – 4658.

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[4] S. Silvestre, A. Boronat, and A. Chouder, “Study of bypass diodes
configuration on pv modules,” Applied Energy, vol. 86, no. 9, pp. 1632
– 1640, 2009.
[5] S. Guo, T. Walsh, A. Aberle, and M. Peters, “Analysing partial shading of
pv modules by circuit modelling,” in Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
(PVSC), 2012 38th IEEE, June 2012, pp. 002 957–002 960.

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