Impact Analysis of Potential Induced Degradation on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell Performance by Correlating Practical Diagnosis with MATLAB Simulation

Abstract

Extensive research on fault diagnosis is essential to detect various faults that occur to different photovoltaic (PV) panels to keep PV systems operating at peak performance. Here, we present an impact analysis of potential induced degradation (PID) on the current–voltage (I-V) characteristics of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. The impact of parasitic resistances on solar cell performance is highlighted and linked to fault and degradation. Furthermore, a Simulink model for a single solar cell is proposed and used to estimate the I-V characteristics of a PID-affected PV cell based on experimental results attributes. The measured data show that the fill factor (FF) drops by approximately 13.7% from its initial value due to a decrease in shunt resistance (Rsh). Similarly, the simulation results find that the fill factor degraded by approximately 12% from its initial value. The slight increase in measured data could be due to series resistance effects which were assumed to be zero in the simulated data. This study links simulation and experimental work to confirm the I-V curve behavior of PID-affected PV cells, which could help to improve fault diagnosis methods.