An economic study about the installation of PV plants reconfiguration systems in Italy

Abstract

This paper shows the economic convenience of the application of a reconfiguration system for photovoltaic plants, considering the incentives system in Italy and its recent modifications. The reconfiguration is an alternative to the Distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking, DMPPT, technique used to overcome the mismatch problem in Photovoltaic, PV, plants. The reconfiguration techniques employ a microprocessor-based system that modifies the layout of the PV plant by physically changing the connections among modules. After the explanation of the working principle of the PV reconfiguration system allowing the improvement of the efficiency of the same plant and the relevant installation, the main strength and weakness points of the investment are evidenced in relation to different incentives policies.