The analysis on simulation and invalidation of hot-spot temperature distribution in micro-defective crystalline silicon solar cells

Abstract

According to the distribution of reverse biased leakage current of micro-defective solar cells, the mathematic models of the hot spot thermal power of photovoltaic (PV) modules are established. The uniform and non-uniform distribution of thermal power in hot spot solar cell are theoretically calculated and experimentally analyzed in different shading conditions. Based on the model, the hot spot temperature distribution of different defective cells is simulated by ANSYS software. Then a novel experimental platform is set up to validate the simulation results in outdoor conditions. The mechanism of hot spot failure and the worst hot spot condition are analyzed. According to the results of experiment and simulation, the relative deviation between simulation and experimental data is less than 10% through the model proposed in this paper. Furthermore, in the normal modules, according to the result of simulation and experiment, the worst case of hot spots happens when the heat power is maximum and the shading ratio is about 10–20%. In the defective modules, it happens when the heat power is not maximum and the shading ratio is about 50–60%.