Identification and Characterization of Solar Cell Defects using Thermal Imaging

Abstract

Solar energy has been a basic need since aware of the energy crises throughout the world. Now the researchers are turning toward solar photovoltaic (PV) power system for future energy needs. However, some drawbacks of the field testing are existing with photovoltaic modules such as cost and heavy dependence on the weather conditions. The problems associated with photovoltaic system are the non-linear supply of power and it leads to complexity in matching the load. The PV solar module produce the nonlinear that changes with the variation in solar irradiance during entire day. Research work is on improving the performance, quality and reducing its cost. Researchers face the challenges in fabrication and materials used and due to this fact its performance decreases. In this paper, a method has been introduced to locate shunts using thermal images. IR inspection is used to observe the location of such shunts. After the electrical testing and measurements of the characteristics, the effect on degradation on solar cell materials from light IV curves and dark IV curves has been depicted. The shunts are isolated and performance is tested again and compare to observe.