Solar energy harvesting under partial shading conditions through a reconfiguration strategy using a multi-port DC–DC converter

In the current context, renewable energy has acquired great importance in the search for sustainable solutions to global energy needs. Within this scenario, solar photovoltaics (PV) stand out as an essential source, supporting the transition to a cleaner and more efficient energy system. Despite notable advances in PV technology, their limitations substantially challenge solar energy harvesting efficiency. Owing to its negative consequences, partial shading has motivated the search for innovative and practical solutions to improve the performance of PV systems. This research explicitly addresses these limitations by proposing a reconfigurable system using a multi-port converter to independently extract the energy generated by shaded and unshaded panels by implementing a reconfiguration strategy using the Perturb and Observe (P & O) technique. The reconfiguration strategy results are encouraging since 31% of the energy extracted from the unshaded panels is recovered when the system is in partial shade presence. This breakthrough contributes to the efficiency of PV system optimization, thus highlighting the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy as a concrete solution to the current challenges in the solar energy field.