English: Effect of partial shading of a single solar cell on the I-V curve of a large series connection of solar cells when equipped with bypass diodes in anti-parallel connection to every solar cell. Now the excess current from the fully insolated cells is diverted through the bypass diode of the shaded cell, which is only slightly negatively biased and the power to be dissipated is largely reduced (shaded areas represent the power dissipated at both the cell and the bypass diode). This in turns dramatically reduces the power drop at Pmax.