Many field researchers have in the past grappled with the problems of energy loss and panel damage as a result of shading and staining of PV panels after installation. A number of solutions have been proposed to try and minimize the effects of this problem in the field. The problem with all these solutions is that they address inter-panel connection topologies for very large installations. No particular attention has been paid to the topologies of individual panels. In sub-Saharan Africa most installations are single panel solar home systems and therefore small shading can result in an entire installation being disabled. This paper aims to study the effect of shading and staining on photovoltaic modules and propose a new topology that will reduce the effect of shading on the performance of individual photovoltaic modules. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.