Study on performance degradation and damage modes of thin-film photovoltaic cell subjected to particle impact

Abstract

It has been a key issue for photovoltaic (PV) cells to survive under mechanical impacts by tiny dust. In this paper, the performance degradation and the damage behavior of PV cells subjected to massive dust impact are investigated using laser-shock driven particle impact experiments and mechanical modeling. The results show that the light-electricity conversion efficiency of the PV cells decreases with increasing the impact velocity and the particles’ number density. It drops from 26.7 to 3.9% with increasing the impact velocity from 40 to 185 m/s and the particles’ number densities from 35 to 150/mm2, showing a reduction up to 85.7% when being compared with the intact ones with the light-electricity conversion efficiency of 27.2%. A damage-induced conversion efficiency degradation (DCED) model is developed and validated by experiments, providing an effective method in predicting the performance degradation of PV cells under various dust impact conditions. Moreover, three damage modes, including damaged conducting grid lines, fractured PV cell surfaces, and the bending effects after impact are observed, and the corresponding strength of each mode is quantified by different mechanical theories.

Inorganic Thin-Film Solar Cells: Challenges at the Terawatt-Scale

“…However, there are three thin-film technologies that are prominent in the PV market, i.e., CdTe, CIGS, and a-Si. Among these three thin-film technologies, CdTe is now the only thin-film technology in the first 10 top producers in the world [171], due to several features such as field performance under extreme climatic conditions, techno-economic aspects, and life-cycle impact [7]. CdTe shows a lower decrease in open circuit voltage with increasing temperatures than for CIGS and silicon-based solar cells, with 20% more overall power generation in a high temperature environment [151].…”

“…Interesting studies on the effect of dust on PV performance carried out in Santiago (Chile) [164], in the Atacama desert (South America) [165], under United Arab Emirates weather conditions [166], in a Saharan environment [167], in Iran [168], in East China [169], and in Minas Gerais, Brazil [170], indicate that the effects of dust on the degradation of a PV module's performance would waste the natural resources severely [171][172][173][174]. Indeed, the electrical characteristics of the PV module are influenced by the dust accumulation, since the short circuit current is significantly reduced, especially at higher dust density.…”

Redundant Photo-Voltaic Power Cell in a Highly Reliable System

“…Our experimental setup is built based on the literature. The problem taken from practice is the pollution and damage of the solar cells, thus the reduction of the generated energy [51]. Based on user experience, these impurities may be contaminated rain (with dust content), sandstorm (wind carried dust), industrial pollution, dirt from agricultural activities, biology pollution (insects, birds, animals), etc.…”