Tae-Hee Jung

Correlation between Reverse Voltage Characteristics and Bypass Diode Operation with Different Shading Conditions for c-Si Photovoltaic Module Package

A photovoltaic (PV) system generates electricity by installing a solar energy array; therefore, the photovoltaic system can be easily exposed to external factors, which include environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and radiation. These factors—as well as shading, in particular—lead to power degradation. When there is an output loss in the solar cell of a PV module package, the output loss is partly controlled by the bypass diode. As solar cells become highly efficient, the characteristics of series resistance and parallel resistance improve, and the characteristics of reverse voltage change. A bypass diode is connected in parallel to the string that is connected in series to the PV module. Ideally, the bypass diode operates when the voltage is -0.6[V] around. This study examines the bypass diode operating time for different types of crystalline solar cells. It compares the reverse voltage characteristics between the single solar cell and polycrystalline solar cell. Special modules were produced for the experiment. The shading rate of the solar cell in the specially made solar energy module was raised by 5% each time to confirm that the bypass diode was operating. The operation of the bypass diode is affected not only by the reverse voltage but also by the forward bias. This tendency was verified as the number of strings increased.

Optimal Design of PV Module with Bypass Diode to Reduce Degradation due to Reverse Excess Current

In this paper, we present an economical and practical standard to install a bypass diode in a thin-film PV module. This method helps to reduce heat generation and to prevent module degradation due to excess current from reverse bias. The experimental results confirm that for different numbers of solar cells, there is a relation between the excess reverse current and the degradation of solar cells in a-Si:H modules. The optimal number of solar cells that can be connected per bypass diode could be obtained through an analysis of the results to effectively suppress the degradation and to reduce the heat generated by the module. This technique could be expanded for use in high power crystalline Si PV modules.

The Effect of PID Generation by Components of the PV Module

PID (potential induced degradation) of PV module is the degradation of module due to the high potential difference between the front surface of solar cells and ground when PV modules operate under high humidity and temperature conditions. PID is generally derived from the positive sodium ions in front glass that are accumulated on P-type solar cells. Therefore, some papers for the electrical characteristic of only front components as glass, EVA sheet, solar cell under PID generation condition were revealed. In this paper, we analyzed the different outputs of module with PID by considering the all parts of module including the back side elements such as glass, back sheet. Mini modules with one solar cell were fabricated with the various parts on front and back sided of module. To generate PID of module in a short time, the all modules were applied.1,000 V in , 85% RH. The outputs, dark IV curves and EL images of all modules before and after experiments were also measured to confirm the main components of module for PID generation. From the measured results, the outputs of all modules with front glass were remarkably reduced and the performances of modules with back and front glass were greatly deteriorated. We suggest that the obtained data could be used to reduce the PID phenomenon of diverse modules such as conventional module and BIPV (building integrated photovoltaic) module.

Series Resistance Change by Partial Shading in a-Si Thin Film Photovoltaic(PV) Module

PV module has many power loss factors, and series resistance is the most important elements of them. It is therefore easy to expect the partial shading decrease the lifetime of the semiconductor depletion layer in thin film PV module. Different shading losses could be related with the hot spot which is critical in expecting the reliability issue. In this paper we have modelled the series resistance of the PV module with both different direction of the cell line and shading area of the panel. From the results, thin film a-Si PV module has shown different properties by shading direction.

Electrical Characteristics of c-Si PV Module for the Spread of Natural Light Spectrum

Recently, characteristic research by the changes in the spectrum, one of the factors that influence analysis of maximum output power of PV module, has been studied. In this paper, a one-day intensity of solar irradiation, change of spectrums with time and electrical output for spectrums are analyzed. As a result, blue-rich wavelength compared with red-rich wavelength has large variation of solar irradiance with time, so we recognized that change of solar irradiance is dominated by variation of blue~rich wavelength. Also in same intensity of solar irradiance, electrical output in blue-rich wavelength was 3-8 % higher than one in red-rich wavelength.

Analytical Model of TFT Drain Current based on Effective Area and Average Velocity

In this paper, we proposed an analytical model for TFT which has series of the polycrystalline structures. An average speed is defined as carrier speed by the electric field. The effective square is suggested as the area of grain without depletion for the changed grain size. First, physical parameters such as grain size, channel lenght and trap density, have been changed to prove the validity of the average speed model and the value of the effective square has been estimated through drain-source current.