Solar PV 2

Solar Photovoltaic
Lecture # 02
Dr. Muhammad Faisal Nadeem Khan

Associate Professor
Power Generation EED, UET Taxila 1

Module Structure
• A PV module consists of a number of interconnected solar cells encapsulated into
a single, long-lasting, stable unit.
• The most common modules have either 60 cells or 72 cells with three bypass
diodes.
• 60 cell modules were originally designed for ease of handling in residential
applications and heavier 72 cell modules for large utility installations where
cranes and hydraulic lift are available.
• Module lifetimes and warranties on bulk silicon PV modules are over 20 years,
indicating the robustness of an encapsulated PV module. A typical warranty will
guarantee that the module produces 90% of its rated output for the first 10 years
and 80% of its rated output up to 25 years
Bypass Diodes
• The destructive effects of hot-spot heating may be circumvented
using a bypass diode.
• A bypass diode is connected in parallel, but with opposite
polarity, to a solar cell as shown below.
• Under normal operation, each solar cell will be forward biased
and therefore the bypass diode will be reverse biased and will
effectively be an open circuit.
• However, if a solar cell is reverse biased due to a mismatch in
short-circuit current between several series connected cells,
then the bypass diode conducts, thereby allowing the current
from the good solar cells to flow in the external circuit rather
than forward biasing each good cell.
• The maximum reverse bias across the poor cell is reduced to
about a single diode drop, thus limiting the current and
preventing hot-spot heating.
• In practice, however, one bypass diode per solar cell is generally
too expensive and instead bypass diodes are usually placed
across groups of solar cells.
Module Circuit Design
• PV module consists of multiple solar cells connected, nearly always in series, to
increase the power and voltage above that from a single solar cell.
• An individual silicon solar cell has a voltage at the maximum power point around 0.5V
under 25 °C and AM1.5 illumination.
• Considering an expected reduction in PV module voltage due to temperature and the
fact that a battery may require voltages of 15V or more to charge, most modules
contain 36 solar cells in series.
• This gives an open-circuit voltage of about 21V under standard test conditions, and an
operating voltage at maximum power and operating temperature of about 17 or 18V.
Module Circuit Design
• The voltage from the PV module is determined by the number of solar cells and the
current from the module depends primarily on the size of the solar cells.
• At AM1.5 and under optimum tilt conditions, the current density from a commercial
solar cell is approximately between 30 mA/cm2 to 36 mA/cm2.
• Single crystal solar cells are often 15.6 × 15.6 cm2, giving a total current of almost 9 –
10A from a module.
• The table below shows the output of typical modules at STC. IMP and ISC do not
change that much but VMP and VOC scale with the number of cells in the module.
• If all the solar cells in a module have identical electrical characteristics, and they all
experience the same insolation and temperature, then all the cells will be operating at
the same current and voltage.
Measuring the Power of
solar panel
• To measure the voltage across the terminals
of the PV panel we would require a
voltmeter.
• To measure the current generated by the PV
panel would require an ammeter to measure
the short circuit current (ISC) into a dead
short.
• Let’s assume that we bought a rheostat
which is variable between 0 and 10 Ohms
Measuring the Power of solar panel
Solar panel Specification plate
Name plate Labels
Solar Module Type
Usually looking up the module type will give a more detailed data sheet on the module. In
this case, we can tell its a 295 W module and there are 60 cells in the module. As there
are 60 cells it is more likely to be used in residential applications than a large centralized
power station.
Maximum Power (Pmax)

295 watts is the power of the module under STC at the maximum power point. In the field,
the module will likely be at a higher temperature so the actual power will be lower.
Power Tolerance
Under STC the module might have a power up to 3% higher. A higher power is not always a
good thing as it could overload the power electronics.
Maximum Power Voltage (VMP)

When operating at Pmax the voltage is 32.4 volts.
Maximum Power Current (ISC)

When operating at Pmax the current is 9.1 amps. Note that 32.4 V × 9.1 A = 295 W.
Name plate Labels
Open Circuit Voltage (VOC)
At STC the no-load voltage is 39.7 volts. This is the voltage that would be measured on a
sunny day when the light intensity is close to 1000 W/m2 and the temperature is 25 °C.
Maximum Power Current (ISC)
When the leads of the panel are shorted the current is 9.61 amps.
Nominal Operating Cell Temperature (NOCT)
In the field the module will operate at 45°C under the specific conditions of NOCT, which
is different from STC. NOCT has Irradiance 800 W/m2, air temperature or 20°C, wind
velocity of 1 m/s and an open back. The rest of the details cover how the module is
installed and that it passes safety standards.
STC
STC – Standard test conditions. The label finally notes that the standard test conditions
are 1000 W/m2 of sunlight, 25 °C and spectrum of Airmass 1.5 (AM 1.5). All modern
modules are tested using these conditions. The label usually does not give the fill factor
but we can calculate it. In this case it is (32.4 × 9.1)/(39.7 × 9.61) = 0.772. Most modules
will have a fill factor from 0.7 to 0.8.
Nominal Operating Cell Temperature
• A PV module will be typically rated at 25 °C under 1 kW/m2.
• However, when operating in the field, they typically operate at higher
temperatures and at somewhat lower insolation conditions.
• To determine the power output of the solar cell, it is important to determine the
expected operating temperature of the PV module.
• The Nominal Operating Cell Temperature (NOCT) is defined as the temperature
reached by open circuited cells in a module under the conditions as listed below:
1. Irradiance on cell surface = 800 W/m2
2. Air Temperature = 20°C
3. Wind Velocity = 1 m/s
4. Mounting = open back side.
Measuring the Power of
solar panel
• Increasing load resistance in steps of 1
Ohm while measuring the solar panels
output voltage and current, we can
complete the following table.
• Maximum power occurs when the load

resistance RL is 3 Ohms giving a panel
voltage of 16.9 V producing 5.6 A thus
giving an output power of 94.7W.
• This value closely matches the

manufactures data label for an operating
voltage (Vmp) and operating current (Imp) of
17.8V and 5.62A respectively.
• Fine tune our measurements to get closer

to the 100W target.
I-V Characteristics Curves
Fill Factor
• The short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage are the maximum current
and voltage respectively from a solar cell.
• However, at both of these operating points, the power from the solar cell is zero.
• The "fill factor", more commonly known by its abbreviation "FF", is a parameter
which, in conjunction with Voc and Isc, determines the maximum power from a
solar cell.
• The FF is defined as the ratio of the maximum power from the solar cell to the
product of Voc and Isc so that:
Fill Factor
• Graphically, the FF is a measure of the "squareness" of the solar cell and
is also the area of the largest rectangle which will fit in the IV curve. The
FF is illustrated below.
Fill Factor
Solar Cell Efficiency
• The efficiency of a solar cell is determined as the fraction of incident power
which is converted to electricity and is defined as:
Where:
Voc is the open-circuit voltage;
Isc is the short-circuit current;
FF is the fill factor and
η is the efficiency.
Thank You

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Solar Photovoltaic

Dr. Muhammad Faisal Nadeem Khan

Power Generation EED, UET Taxila 1

Maximum Power (Pmax)

Maximum Power Voltage (VMP)

Maximum Power Current (ISC)

• Maximum power occurs when the load

• This value closely matches the

• Fine tune our measurements to get closer

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