The performance analysis of photovoltaic module accounting for solar cell degradation and series resistance

태양전지 셀의 열화와 직렬저항의 변화에 따른 태양전지 모듈의 특성 해석

When photovoltaic module is used for a long time, its performance decreases due to several reasons. In this paper, we focus on the possibilities mainly contributing to the degraded efficiency of the polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic modules. The analysis is based on the modules that have been used for 15 years. These are two main reasons that cause the efficiency degradation, the corrosion and thermal decomposition. The former phenomenon of electrode is mainly due to the moisture from damaged back sheet in some module. However the other reason of the degraded efficiency comes from the thermal decomposition, which can not be observed from the outside but only by experiment. In this study, the comparison between the efficiency of normal modules and degradation modules is presented. Module having degraded cell was seen to cause increase of series resistance by about 80%, in comparison to normal samples efficiency which reduce by about 20%. This study shows that the effects of series resistances on module performance are critical. These effects must be understood and taken into consideration when analyzing performance degradation.