IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v145y2020icp466-477.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Micro cracks distribution and power degradation of polycrystalline solar cells wafer: Observations constructed from the analysis of 4000 samples

Author

Listed:
  • Dhimish, Mahmoud

Abstract

In this paper, the impact of Photovoltaic (PV) micro cracks is assessed through the analysis of 4000 polycrystalline silicon solar cells. The inspection of the cracks has been carried out using an electron microscopy, which facilitate the detection of the cracks though the acquisition of both Everhart-Thornley Detector (ETD) and the Back Scatted Electron Diffraction (BSED) image, where it was found that the size micro cracks are ranging from 50 μm to a maximum of 4 mm. Micro cracks have been categorized into two main categories, including cracks in the solar cell front or rear contact. Several remarkable observations have been found, including but not limited to, (i) the output power loss due to micro cracks varies from 0.9% to 42.8%, subject to micro crack type and size, (ii) cracks in solar cells fingers reduce the finger width, resulting an increase in the output power loss by at least 1.7%, and (iii) there is a substantial correlation between PV hot-spots and the presence of micro cracks, while minimum increase in the cell temperature is observed at 7.6 °C.

Suggested Citation

  • Dhimish, Mahmoud, 2020. "Micro cracks distribution and power degradation of polycrystalline solar cells wafer: Observations constructed from the analysis of 4000 samples," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 466-477.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:145:y:2020:i:c:p:466-477
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.06.057
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014811930881X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2019.06.057?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dag, H.I. & Buker, M.S., 2020. "Performance evaluation and degradation assessment of crystalline silicon based photovoltaic rooftop technologies under outdoor conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 1292-1300.
    2. Waqar Akram, M. & Li, Guiqiang & Jin, Yi & Chen, Xiao, 2022. "Failures of Photovoltaic modules and their Detection: A Review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    3. Papargyri, Lamprini & Papanastasiou, Panos & Georghiou, George E., 2022. "Effect of materials and design on PV cracking under mechanical loading," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 433-444.
    4. Mathhar Bdour & Zakariya Dalala & Mohammad Al-Addous & Ashraf Radaideh & Aseel Al-Sadi, 2020. "A Comprehensive Evaluation on Types of Microcracks and Possible Effects on Power Degradation in Photovoltaic Solar Panels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-22, August.
    5. Dhimish, Mahmoud & Ahmad, Ameer & Tyrrell, Andy M., 2022. "Inequalities in photovoltaics modules reliability: From packaging to PV installation site," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 805-814.
    6. Somin Park & Younghyun Cho & Seulki Kim & Koo Lee & Junsin Yi, 2022. "Effect of Cell Electrical Mismatch on Output of Crystalline Photovoltaic Modules," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-21, October.
    7. Koo Lee & Sung Bae Cho & Junsin Yi & Hyo Sik Chang, 2022. "Simplified Recovery Process for Resistive Solder Bond (RSB) Hotspots Caused by Poor Soldering of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules Using Resin," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Mahmoud Dhimish, 2020. "Performance Ratio and Degradation Rate Analysis of 10-Year Field Exposed Residential Photovoltaic Installations in the UK and Ireland," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-14, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:145:y:2020:i:c:p:466-477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.