Shutter Technique for Noninvasive Individual Cell Characterization in Sealed CPV Modules

Author

Yandt, Mark D. ; Cook, John P. D. ; Hinzer, Karin ; Schriemer, Henry

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Volume

5

Issue

2

fYear

2015

fDate

Mar-15

Firstpage

691

Lastpage

696

Abstract

An optical shutter technique for quality control and degradation analysis of concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) modules is presented. Shuttering configurations are described and used to determine individual component degradation or failure in field-exposed commercial modules. Cells are shuttered in specific patterns, intentionally engaging internal bypass diodes, and current-voltage (I-V) curves are measured at the housing terminals of the sealed module. Individual cell characteristics may be qualitatively determined by contrasting module I-V responses to different shutter configurations and quantitatively determined by fitting an extended equivalent circuit model to the shutter data.

Keywords

failure analysis; solar cells; I-V curves; concentrating photovoltaic modules; current-voltage curves; degradation analysis; equivalent circuit model; internal bypass diodes; noninvasive individual cell characterization; optical shutter technique; quality control; sealed CPV modules; Arrays; Current measurement; Equivalent circuits; Integrated circuit modeling; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Bypass diode; CPV module testing; I–V measurement; I???V measurement; component failure analysis; concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) field testing; concentrator photovoltaic; optical shutter array;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2392943

Filename

7035003