EXPERIMENTAL BENCHMARKING OF PARTIAL SHADING EFFECT ON THIN-FILM AND CRYSTALLINE-SILICON SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES

摘要

Partial shading affects the performance and reliability of thin-film and crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules. In this paper, the thin-film and c-Si modules are experimentally benchmarked by introducing various partial shading patterns over the modules. More specifically, experiments are performed using SPI-SUN 5600 SLP-based test-rig. The benchmarking reveals that thin-film and c-Si technologies behave differently under the same shading patterns. Furthermore, thermographic images are also presented to explore the effect of partial shading on both modules.