Applicability of Light Induced Luminescence for Characterization of Internal Series-Parallel Connected Photovoltaic Modules

authored by

Marc Köntges, Jan Wagner, Michael Siebert, Stefan Bordihn, Carsten Schinke

Abstract

In this article, we present a new method to measure electroluminescence (EL) images of current half-cell PV modules without opening electrical contacts. The method uses the series parallel interconnection of the substrings in the module to power one module half (luminescence part) by illumination of the other module half (generator part). The defect interpretation of the resulting images changes slightly compared to usual EL images. Module defects in the generator part of the module influence the working point of the EL of the luminescence part. The new method has a practical limitation, as an electrical power of about 12.4 kW would be required for bringing the luminescent part into the operating point of the rated short-circuit current. Using infrared light emitting diodes and a working point of half of the nominal short-circuit power brings the needed power down to about 2.4 kW for a 144-cell module. For current Si-based PV modules, the method allows image acquisition times below 1 s per image with conventional silicon sensor-based cameras.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Solid State Physics

External Organisation(s)

Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH)

Type

Article

Journal

IEEE journal of photovoltaics

Volume

12

Pages

805-814

No. of pages

10

ISSN

2156-3381

Publication date

23.03.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2022.3156727 (Access: Closed)