Measurement and Simulation of Hot Spots in Solar Cells

Solheim, H.J.; Fjær, Hallvard G.; Sørheim, Einar A.; Foss, Sean Erik

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2013.07.266

Cited by 40 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Thermal characterization was carried out by means of a FLIR 320 Thermal camera, by using a pulsed technique [5] which allows to increase the measurement resolution. The actual hot spot temperature is normally observed to reach higher values with respect to those revealed by the IR detection technique [6], so the values reported here represent an underestimation of the actual temperatures. In addition, within the measurement setup the cell is placed on a copper chuck for the rear contact, which offers a significant thermal dissipation and better thermal characteristics than the final encapsulation of a solar module.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Thermal and electrical characterization of catastrophic degradation of silicon solar cells submitted to reverse current stress

Compagnin

Meneghini

Giliberto

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE 39th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

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With this paper we present an extensive analysis of the degradation of Si-based solar cells submitted to reversebias stress. The study was carried out by combined electrical, electro-optical and thermal measurements, executed at the different stages of the stress tests. Results indicate that exposure to reverse bias may induce severe modifications of the shunt resistance, due to modifications in the parasitic leakage paths which can be revealed as hot spots by infrared thermal imaging. I-V measurements carried out at different illumination levels provide information on the efficiency and fill factor modifications induced by the decrease in shunt resistance. Finally the modifications in the electrical characteristics of the cells are simulated and fitted by a two-diode model.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Thermal and electrical characterization of catastrophic degradation of silicon solar cells submitted to reverse current stress

Compagnin

Meneghini

Giliberto

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE 39th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

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“…This phenomenon is well-known by the transient conduction where the heat is not only transferred through the solid using the vibration of the molecules but also as a function of time [24]. According to [25] it was observed that 78% of the reverse power is turned into heat at the hot-spot area. The remaining fraction of the power was evenly distributed over the cell, accounting for the normal reverse current, possible contact resistance and additional small shunts.…”

Section: B Effect Of Breakdown/micro-cracks In Solar Cells Fingersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro cracks distribution and power degradation of polycrystalline solar cells wafer: Observations constructed from the analysis of 4000 samples

Dhimish

2020

Renewable Energy

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In this paper, the impact of Photovoltaic (PV) micro cracks is assessed through the analysis of 4000 polycrystalline silicon solar cells. The inspection of the cracks has been carried out using an electron microscopy, which facilitate the detection of the cracks though the acquisition of both Everhart-Thornley Detector (ETD) and the Back Scatted Electron Diffraction (BSED) image, where it was found that the size micro cracks are ranging from 50µm to a maximum of 4mm. Micro cracks have been categorized into two main categories, including cracks in the solar cell front or rear contact. Several remarkable observations have been found, including but not limited to, (i) the output power loss due to micro cracks varies from 0.9% to 42.8%, subject to micro crack type and size, (ii) cracks in solar cells fingers reduce the finger width, resulting an increase in the output power loss by at least 1.7%, and (iii) there is a substantial correlation between PV hot-spots and the presence of micro cracks, while minimum increase in the cell temperature is observed at 7.6 °C.

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“…Shade has serious effects on solar cells, for example, hot-spot damage to cells in which a shaded part will be overheated and will potentially burn out [15,16]. The hot-spot effect is closely related to the device's temperature [17,18], and the device's temperature is sensitive to the incident light's intensity [19,20]. Therefore, none of the above research gives a reasonable analysis of experimental results when a solar cell is exposed to simultaneous changes in the light's intensity and the shading area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation on the characteristics of a solar cell under different illumination intensities and shading areas

Xiao

et al. 2015

Journal of the Korean Physical Society

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The characteristics of a solar cell, the short-circuit current (Isc), the open-circuit voltage (Voc), the maximum power point (Vm, Im), the fill factor (F F ) and the photoelectric conversion efficiency (η) under different illumination intensities and shading areas have been experimentally investigated. The work factor ω is given by ω = (1 − A/A0) × S/S0, where A0 is the total solar cell area, A the shading area, S0 the benchmark reference irradiation level, and S the new level of the irradiation, is introduced to take the light intensity and shading area into account. The results show that Isc and Im increase on an approximately linear increasing way with ω, but Voc and Vm approach the saturation levels. The reason is that the current is a linear function of ω, and the relationship of the voltage to ω is logarithmic. We also found Isc (Vm) to depend more on ω than Im (Voc). In addition, we observed that η tended to increase linearly with ω, but F F tended to converge to saturation. The reason for the behavior of η is the reduction in the contact resistance and in the electron-hole recombination with increasing ω. However, F F is mainly determined by Voc. The improvement in the solar cell performance with increasing ω results from an increase in the current, but not in the voltage or the fill factor.

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Measurement and Simulation of Hot Spots in Solar Cells

Cited by 40 publications

References 2 publications

Thermal and electrical characterization of catastrophic degradation of silicon solar cells submitted to reverse current stress

Thermal and electrical characterization of catastrophic degradation of silicon solar cells submitted to reverse current stress

Micro cracks distribution and power degradation of polycrystalline solar cells wafer: Observations constructed from the analysis of 4000 samples

Experimental investigation on the characteristics of a solar cell under different illumination intensities and shading areas

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