Investigation of the shunting effects of parallel-connected a-Si:H solar cells

This paper investigates the performance of parallel-connected amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells based on the separation of the shunting effects of individual cells under different illumination intensities, Φ. The cells are arranged in photovoltaic (PV) modules to meet the desired electrical requirements. According to traditional methods of determining the shunt resistance of each cell, one has to remove the lamination over the PV modules, resulting in a probable damage of the physical connections between the cells. Therefore, to solve such a problem, we make use of the illumination-intensity dependence of the shunt resistance of a-Si:H solar cells. The purpose of this study is to determine the shunt resistance of any cell in the PV module even without accessing the electrical contacts of the corresponding cell, and consequently, we non-destructively identify any shunted (low quality) cell in the PV module.