A Finite-Element Approach to Analyze the Thermal Effect of Defects on Silicon-Based PV Cells

Author

Vergura, Silvano ; Acciani, Giuseppe ; Falcone, Ottavio

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electrotechnics, Electron. of Politec. di Bari, Bari, Italy

Volume

59

Issue

10

fYear

2012

Firstpage

3860

Lastpage

3867

Abstract

The paper introduces the issue of the typical defects in photovoltaic (PV) cells and focuses the attention on three specific defects: linear edge shunt, hole, and conductive intrusion. These defects are modeled by means of finite-element method and implemented in Comsol Multiphysics environment to analyze the temperature distribution in the whole defected PV cell. All the three typologies of silicon-based PV cells are considered: monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous. Numerical issues (simulation times, degrees of freedom, mesh elements, and grid dependence analysis) are reported.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; finite element analysis; solar cells; temperature distribution; thermal analysis; Comsol multiphysics environment; Si; amorphous topology; conductive intrusion defect; finite element approach; hole defect; linear edge shunt; monocrystalline typology; photovoltaic cells; polycrystalline typology; silicon-based PV cells; temperature distribution; thermal effect analysis; Conductivity; Finite element methods; Heat transfer; Materials; Mathematical model; Solid modeling; Thermal analysis; Defects; PV cell; finite-element method (FEM); silicon; thermal;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0046

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TIE.2011.2163286

Filename

5966341