Maximum Duration Life (MDL) Approach: A Tool to Maximize the Energy Peformance of PV Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Decarbonization, as the main objective of the new green deal, emphasizes the need to use renewable sources for the production of electricity. PhotoVoltaic (PV) sources are among the most interesting renewable sources for the scientific community in particular and at large. Due to PV modules’ poor efficiency, in the last 35 years, research efforts have been predominantly spent on the energy issue; maximization of the energy produced from PV systems during their useful life has been the main goal—a goal that, in uniform atmospheric conditions, may be achieved by forcing the PV system to work in the maximum power point (MPP). The continuous tracking of the MPP, through the action of so-called maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control techniques, allows us to achieve a double objective: the maximization of the power extracted and the reduction of thermal stresses. Unfortunately, when PV systems work in mismatching operating conditions (due to shadows of neighboring objects, dirtiness, clouds, manufacturing tolerances, dust, thermal gradients, uneven aging, etc.), the maximization of the power extracted and the reduction of thermal stresses are contrasting requirements. In these conditions, the localized heating phenomena due to bypass diode conduction and/or to reverse biased PV cells unavoidably speed up the PV modules’ degradation mechanisms, causing a reduction in their reliability. Therefore, proper control of the PV system’s operating point and/or of PV modules’ electrical connections, with the aim to avoid or to limit localized heating phenomena, can be beneficial to maximize the energy production of the PV system itself during its lifetime. In PV applications, a new challenge is based on the following idea: “the maximization of the extracted power, when it is obtained at the price of too severe thermal stresses, is to be avoided”. It may be preferable to give up part of the available energy today to gain a greater amount of energy tomorrow. This Special Issue aims to address the above challenge—a challenge that may be faced through the development of algorithms, techniques, and architectures able to identify the optimized solution, allowing for the desired compromise between energy efficiency and the mitigation of thermal stresses associated with mismatching conditions. The topic is of great interest for researchers in the fields of aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, environmental engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and so on. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Hybrid techniques;

Distributed MPPT algorithms;

Reconfiguration approaches;

Free conditions knowledge (no sensor);

New mathematical models of the PV characteristic especially when they work in reverse bias;

New thermal models of the shaded PV module;

Solar cars;

Solar vehicles in public transport;

Solar low-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles.

Dr. Marco Balato
Prof. Dr. Carlo Petrarca
Guest Editors

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• hybrid techniques
• distributed MPPT algorithms
• re-configuration approach
• mismatching
• hot spots
• aging.