Correlation between broken contact fingers and I–V characteristics of partially shaded photovoltaic modules

Atia, Abdulhamid ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0683-5052, Anayi, Fatih ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8408-7673, Bahr, Ali and Min, Gao 2024. Correlation between broken contact fingers and I–V characteristics of partially shaded photovoltaic modules. Solar 4 (4) , pp. 595-605. 10.3390/solar4040028

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Abstract

This paper reports on the correlation between broken contact fingers and the shape of the current–voltage (I–V) curve of a photovoltaic (PV) module. It was found that the broken contact fingers of a solar cell in the PV module cause a noticeable change in the I–V curve of the PV module when the solar cell was partially shaded. The broken contact fingers were inspected by microscopic imaging and electroluminescence (EL) imaging, and a further investigation was carried out using a single solar cell. The results show that the fill factor of the cell decreased from 0.75 of full contact to 0.47 after 16 contact fingers were broken, confirming the correlation between the I–V curve shape and broken contact fingers. This result reveals that the shape of the I–V curve of a PV module under individual-cell partial shading may be used as an indicator of broken contact fingers, which offers an alternative approach to EL imaging for detecting broken contact fingers in PV modules in daylight.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Engineering
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Start Date: 2024-10-15
Publisher:	MDPI
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	28 October 2024
Date of Acceptance:	9 October 2024
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 14:32
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/173479

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