Interesting paper

[Anil Kottantharayil]

UV-induced degradation of PERC solar modules with UV-transparent encapsulation materials (pages 409–416)
Robert Witteck, Boris Veith-Wolf, Henning Schulte-Huxel, Arnaud Morlier, Malte R. Vogt, Marc Köntges and Rolf Brendel
Version of Record online: 1 MAR 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/pip.2861

We show that encapsulation polymers with enhanced UV transparency can result in a degradation in output power of p-type PERC modules. This loss is related to an increased recombination in the cell, which we ascribe to a degradation of the surface passivation. With ray tracing simulations we determine the number of photons reaching the passivation interface and find that all photons with energies above 3.5 eV de-passivate the interface is in agreement with our experimental results.

--

Anil Kottantharayil, Ph. D., and CRISP fellow (Oxford)
Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
IIT Bombay
http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/wiki/faculty/anilkg

Google scholar profile: http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=m5f1ZIQAAAAJ&hl=en

[Anil Kottantharayil]

You have full text access to this content

New guidelines for a more accurate extraction of solar cells and modules key data from their current–voltage curves

Bertrand Paviet-Salomon, Jacques Levrat, Vahid Fakhfouri, Yanik Pelet, Nicolas Rebeaud, Matthieu Despeisse and Christophe Ballif

Version of Record online: 10 FEB 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/pip.2872

We investigate the optimisation of the fit procedures to determine with the highest accuracy the key data of photovoltaic devices from their current–voltage characteristics. We show that the state-of-the-art fit procedures are outperformed by smart adjustments of the fit range and the regression type. We improve the accuracy in determining the short-circuit current density by up to 15 times, the open-circuit voltage by 3 to 10 times, and the maximum power by 4 to 5 times, compared to state-of-the-art approaches.

You have full text access to this content

PV degradation curves: non-linearities and failure modes

Dirk C. Jordan, Timothy J. Silverman, Bill Sekulic and Sarah R. Kurtz

Version of Record online: 30 SEP 2016 | DOI: 10.1002/pip.2835

Degradation rates are important for financial projections and may be indicative of different degradation modes, however, degradation rates based on the assumption of linearity may not be sufficiently accurate. Non-linearities at the beginning and end of a PV system's life cycle can have significant economic and technical consequences. In this paper we discuss different degradation modes and how some of these cause roughly linear degradation while other degradation modes lead to distinctly non-linear degradation.