TY - GEN
T1 - PV system power loss and module damage due to partial shade and bypass diode failure depend on cell behavior in reverse bias
AU - Brooks, Adria E.
AU - Cormode, Daniel
AU - Cronin, Alexander D.
AU - Kam-Lum, Elsa
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
PY - 2015/12/14
Y1 - 2015/12/14
N2 - Power loss due to partial shade was compared for two types of commercial photovoltaic modules. We also tested both types of modules with bypass diodes removed to simulate diode failure. Modules with uniformly low reverse bias voltage (VBR) cells (of -4V) lost significantly less power compared to modules with high VBR cells (of -15V) when subjected to partial shade. Differences in power loss were even larger when bypass diodes were removed. Associated with higher power loss, we observed several types of degradation on modules with high-VBR cells. A model to simulate power loss in an array due to partial shading that uses VBR as the main parameter was found to be in good agreement with measured power losses in the field.
AB - Power loss due to partial shade was compared for two types of commercial photovoltaic modules. We also tested both types of modules with bypass diodes removed to simulate diode failure. Modules with uniformly low reverse bias voltage (VBR) cells (of -4V) lost significantly less power compared to modules with high VBR cells (of -15V) when subjected to partial shade. Differences in power loss were even larger when bypass diodes were removed. Associated with higher power loss, we observed several types of degradation on modules with high-VBR cells. A model to simulate power loss in an array due to partial shading that uses VBR as the main parameter was found to be in good agreement with measured power losses in the field.
KW - bypass diodes
KW - crystalline materials
KW - current-voltage characteristics
KW - degradation
KW - photovoltaic systems
KW - power system protection
KW - reverse bias voltage
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84961574848&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84961574848&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356290
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356290
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84961574848
T3 - 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
BT - 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
Y2 - 14 June 2015 through 19 June 2015
ER -