Reliability investigation of photovoltaic cell using finite element modeling

The reliability of Monocrystalline photovoltaic cells (PVC) is investigated using modeling and simulation. Despite that experimental data on this topic is available; it is only for PVC types that existed many years ago. On the other hand, for new designs, long waiting periods are needed. Therefore, it is desired to build a model that can predict PVC reliability using numerical simulation. The advantage of the model is that it eliminates the need to wait many years to get the results, as the results can be obtained using modeling and simulation. However, with this huge time saving comes a difficulty; that is finding a suitable prediction model. In this work, a reliability prediction model is built and tested. The model is based on thermal stress failure, where solar radiation temperature is converted to thermal stress imposed on the module. The temperature history was taken into account, and different types of stress were calculated. Based on stresses, fatigue life was investigated. Eventually, even though the model turned out to be good for design and analysis of PV cells, it still needs more development so as to serve as a PVC reliability prediction tool.