Two-dimensional current flow in stringed PV cells and its influence on the cell-to-module resistive losses

Guo, Sheng; Singh, Jai Prakash; Peters, Ian Marius; Aberle, Armin G.; Wong, Johnson

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2016.02.012

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Figure also reveals the lower efficiency of bifacial solar cells and modules in comparison to their monofacial counterparts. This can be explained mainly by two factors associated to the rear side structure of bifacial cells: 1)The extra resistive losses for the bifacial technologies due to their rear grid metallization design, as seen in Figure ; 2)The rear side of bifacial cells is less efficient than its upper side, as shown by the j p h _ r e f _ f and j p h _ r e f _ r values from Table . …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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PV‐GO: A multiobjective and robust optimization approach for the grid metallization design of Si‐based solar cells and modules

Rodríguez-Gallegos

Singh

Ali

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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This paper proposes a new optimization approach for the metallization design of solar cells and modules. While previous works have only optimized a maximum of two parameters at a time (which might lead to the loss of the optimal solution), we developed a graphic user interface tool in MATLAB called Photovoltaic Grid Optimizer (PV‐GO) which is able to optimize several parameters in parallel (fingers, busbars, silver pads, and ribbons) with the objectives to enhance the efficiency of the solar cell/module and to reduce the silver consumption. The fabrication cost is subsequently estimated. Two multiobjective optimization algorithms are used: Non‐dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA‐II) and Multi‐objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) as well as a robust condition to ensure that the results are not severely affected by slight changes on the input parameters. The solar cell/module performance is estimated based on the two‐diode model considering the influence of the optimization variables under standard test conditions (STC). To evaluate our methodology, we present the optimization design for industrial Cz‐Si–based p‐type Al‐BSF monofacial and PERT bifacial, full‐cell (15.6 × 15.6 cm2) and half‐cell (15.6 × 7.8 cm2), solar cells and modules. Our methodology provides an optimal design suitable for different market situations that should be considered by the PV manufactures to enhance their electrical performance and reduce their silver consumption, and ultimately improve their profitability.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This outcome is due to the resistive losses associated to r ir_f and r ir_r (previously discussed) which can also be seen in Figure 12. 1) The extra resistive losses for the bifacial technologies due to their rear grid metallization design, 78 as seen in Figure 12;…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

PV‐GO: A multiobjective and robust optimization approach for the grid metallization design of Si‐based solar cells and modules

Rodríguez-Gallegos

Singh

Ali

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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“…There was an option in the calculator tool to select and design the geometry of the solar cells, and set their resistivity, along with the cost of the metal volume utilized in the grid and the cell dimensions. The current tool subsequently determined the surface area, volume, series resistance, shading, and cost of the metal employed to fabricate grids on the solar cells [28][29][30]. This modeling of the solar cell was utilized to generate the new material file for the CTM simulation.…”

Section: Modelling Of the Solar Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell-to-Module Simulation Analysis for Optimizing the Efficiency and Power of the Photovoltaic Module

et al. 2022

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A 60-cell photovoltaic (PV) module was analyzed by optimizing the interconnection parameters of the solar cells to enhance the efficiency and increase the power of the PV module setup. The cell-to-module (CTM) losses and gains varied substantially during the various simulation iterations. Optimization was performed to inspect and augment the gain and loss parameters for the 60-cell PV module. The power and efficiency of the module were improved by refining several parameters, such as number of busbars, size of the contact pads, interconnected ribbon width, thickness of the core, and distance between the solar cells and strings, to obtain the maximum efficiency of 21.09%; the CTM efficiency achieved was 94.19% for the proposed strategy related to the common interconnection setup of the ribbon-based system. The CTM efficiency was improved by optimizing the geometrical, optical, and electrical parameters precisely, the power enhancement was up to 325.3 W, and a CTM power of 99.1% was achieved from a standard PV module with rectangular ribbon interconnections.

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“…Due to the bifacial nature of the solar cells and modules, there are additional CTM losses associated with the bifacial modules compared to the monofacial modules. 11,21) This section estimates the optical and resistive losses for the bifacial cells arising mainly due to the rear-side encapsulation and rear side interconnections. In addition, these losses are dependent upon the way bifacial cells are measured, thus making the cell measurements critical.…”

Section: Ctm Losses In Bifacial Pv Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8,9) Measuring bifacial cells on different types of mounting chuck will lead to different results which is mainly due to two distinct effects: 1) bifacial cell transmittance for longer wavelength light and subsequent reflection of the transmitted light from the chuck; 2) the difference in current path due to the mounting chuck's conductivity. 10,11) Since most manufacturers=researchers measure bifacial modules by covering the rear side with a non-reflective cover, 12,13) a wrong measurement of the cell parameters will lead to an error in calculating the cell-to-module (CTM) losses and the performance of the bifacial photovoltaic (PV) modules. In the literature, Rauer et al presented bifacial cell measurements at different labs in Europe using different types of cell mounting chucks and found that most of these measurements are within the uncertainty limit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bifacial solar cell measurements under standard test conditions and the impact on cell-to-module loss analysis

Singh¹,

Chai²,

Saw³

et al. 2017

Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.

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Bifacial cells are conventionally measured using gold-plated chuck, which is conductive and reflective. This measurement setup does not portray the actual operating conditions of the bifacial cells in a module. The reflective chuck causes an overestimation of the current due to the cell transmittance for the infrared light. The conductive chuck creates a shorter current flow path in the rear side of the cell and causes an over inflation of the fill factor measurement. In this study, we characterize and quantitatively analyze the difference between the bifacial cell measurements on different mounting chucks and calculate the cell-to-module (CTM) loss. To characterize the optical behavior of the bifacial cell and module, we perform external quantum efficiency, reflectance and transmittance measurements. The electrical behavior of the bifacial cell is studied using in-house developed software Griddler. Using Griddler, we calculate the difference in the fill factor of the bifacial cell due to the measurement using a conductive and non-conductive chuck, and estimate the corresponding CTM resistive losses.

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Two-dimensional current flow in stringed PV cells and its influence on the cell-to-module resistive losses

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

PV‐GO: A multiobjective and robust optimization approach for the grid metallization design of Si‐based solar cells and modules

PV‐GO: A multiobjective and robust optimization approach for the grid metallization design of Si‐based solar cells and modules

Cell-to-Module Simulation Analysis for Optimizing the Efficiency and Power of the Photovoltaic Module

Bifacial solar cell measurements under standard test conditions and the impact on cell-to-module loss analysis

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