Shunt regulation for continuous operation of solar array at maximum power

In a standalone system, the solar array operation may be off its maximum power point due to an unbalanced power generation, for example, when the battery is fully charged. The purpose of the shunt regulation is to support the array to continuously operate at its maximum power points regardless of the operating conditions of the solar array, the battery, and the load. The excess energy, if any, through the shunt can be captured and utilized, thus, the overall system efficiency can be improved. This paper presents a simulation study of a simple shunt regulation algorithm for the operation of the solar array at maximum power point continuously, showing a system efficiency improvement of about 37.4%.