Effect of Illumination Intensity on Solar Cells Parameters

Abstract

This work presents the influence of the irradiance intensity level on different parameters (ideality factor, saturation current, series resistance, shunt resistance…) of polycrystalline silicon solar cells. I-V characteristics of these cells were plotted with measurements done at room temperature, and were modeled using the single diode model. We find that the short circuit current, the photocurrent and the ideality factor increase linearly with the irradiation level intensity while the open circuit voltage and efficiency increase logarithmically. The fill factor increases slightly for low intensities, and then it decreases with higher intensities of irradiation. The saturation current increases exponentially. The series resistance remains invariant and the shunt resistance decreases linearly.