Connecting Mismatched Solar Panels In Parallel

We don t have to worry about the lower voltage 12v panels pulling that voltage down like it did when we just had a single one.

Connecting mismatched solar panels in parallel.

It s more difficult and costly to run these large wires to connect your solar panels to a distant inverter like is typically found in residential situations. They can be wired in parallel. I have two solar panels a sanyo hit 240hde4 35 5 v and 6 77 a at max power and a panasonic sanyo hit vbhn245sj25 44 3 v and 5 54 a at max power. Another option is to take multiple solar panels and wire them together to equal the same output as the other mismatched panel.

In small solar modules the solar cells are usually connected in series so parallel mismatch is not an issue. The same voltage is the system voltage which for off grid solar panels systems is usually as low as either 6v or 12v. These panels are mismatched in both voltage and current so aren t ideally suited to being connected either in series or parallel. Then they are connected to the charge controller or to the inverter of the solar system.

For instance in the demo below we have a 100w 24v panel and some 50w 12v panels. Connecting solar panels in parallel wiring solar panels in parallel implies connecting positive terminals of each panel together and wiring the negative terminals of each panel together as well. Connecting solar panels in parallel is just the opposite of series connection and is used to increase the total output current of the array and hence the total output power while keeping the same voltage. When solar panels are wired in parallel the positive terminal from one panel is connected to the positive terminal of another panel and the negative terminals of the two panels are connected together.

If we have two solar panels with the same voltage but different wattage there is no problem. For solar cells or modules connected in parallel. What we can do is wire the two 12v panels in series plus to minus and then we can wire it in parallel with the 24v panel. Solar modules are connected in parallel in large arrays so the mismatch usually applies at the module level rather than at the cell level.