Investigation on temperature dependence of recent high-efficiency silicon solar modules

Abstract

The temperature dependence of photovoltaic modules varies with temperature and irradiance. For recent high-efficiency solar modules such as silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar modules and tunneling oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar modules, it is not clear how their temperature dependence changes with temperature and irradiance. In this study, the temperature dependence of SHJ and TOPCon solar modules was studied by measuring I–V curves with the irradiance ranging from 200 to 1000 W/m2 and temperature ranging from 25 to 75 °C. The passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar modules were measured as a reference. The results indicate that the temperature dependence of short-circuit current (Isc) for the three modules is almost invariable with temperature and irradiance. The temperature dependence of open-circuit voltage (Voc) and maximum power (Pm) decreasees with the increasing module temperature, and increasees with the increasing irradiance. It can be observed that the absolute magnitude of (∂Pm/∂T)/Pm for SHJ is the smallest, which is more obvious at high irradiance. An interesting finding is that the temperature dependence of fill factor (FF) for SHJ solar module increases with increasing irradiance, which is opposite to PERC and TOPCon solar modules. This phenomenon is related to the temperature dependence of series resistance. In addition, the temperature dependence is not linear at low temperature and irradiance. The obtained results in this paper can provide useful insight into predicting performance ratio of PERC, SHJ and TOPCon solar modules.