Combined Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of TOPCon Back-Contact Solar Cells with Lateral Power Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors on a Single Substrate

Nowadays, an increasing share of photovoltaic (PV) systems makes use of module- or submodule-level power electronics (PE). Furthermore, PE is used in stand-alone devices powered by PV-storage solutions. One way to facilitate further implementation of PE in PV applications is to integrate PE components into crystalline silicon PV cells. Herein...

Electrical performance of a fully reconfigurable series-parallel photovoltaic module

Reconfigurable photovoltaic modules are a promising approach to improve the energy yield of partially shaded systems. So far, the feasibility of this concept has been evaluated through simulations or simplified experiments. In this work, we analyse the outdoor performance of a full-scale prototype of a series-parallel photovoltaic module with...

Revealing capacitive and inductive effects in modern industrial c-Si photovoltaic cells through impedance spectroscopy

To achieve a high performance in sub-module power conditioning circuits, it is important that power converters are designed in accordance with the photovoltaic (PV) cell impedance at the input. Taking this one step further, exploiting the impedance of cell strings could even support novel power conditioning approaches in PV modules. In this...

Time-varying, ray tracing irradiance simulation approach for photovoltaic systems in complex scenarios with decoupled geometry, optical properties and illumination conditions

The accurate computation of the irradiance incident on the surface of photovoltaic modules is crucial for the simulation of the energy yield of a photovoltaic system. Depending on the geometrical complexity of the surroundings, different approaches are commonly employed to calculate the irradiance on the photovoltaic system. In this article,...

Exploring the benefits, challenges, and feasibility of integrating power electronics into c-Si solar cells

Power electronics traditionally plays a crucial role in conditioning the power of photovoltaic (PV) modules and connecting the systems to the electricity grid. Recently, PV module designs with more sub-module power electronics are gaining increased attention. These designs can offer higher reliability and improved resilience against non...

Low-breakdown-voltage solar cells for shading-tolerant photovoltaic modules

The integration of photovoltaic (PV) technology in urban environments poses new challenges for the design of PV modules. In particular, the poor shading tolerance of conventional PV modules strongly limits the energy performance of urban PV systems. In this work, we analyze how interdigitated back-contact solar cells with low-breakdown...

A fully reconfigurable series-parallel photovoltaic module for higher energy yields in urban environments

Photovoltaic modules in the urban environment are very often exposed to uneven illumination conditions. The electrical interconnection between solar cells in a photovoltaic module limits the power that a solar module can generate under partial shading conditions. In this article, we introduce a PV module that is able to dynamically reconfigure...

Simulation study of the electrical yield of various PV module topologies in partially shaded urban scenarios

Urban environments present a great potential to generate electricity with photovoltaic technology. However, this electricity cannot be fully harvested using conventional solar modules that have been designed for open landscapes. In urban environments, photovoltaic modules can often be subject to partial shading caused by trees and building...

Photovoltatronics: Intelligent PV-based devices for energy and information applications

At present, electrification and digitalization are two significant trends in the energy sector. Large-scale introduction of variable renewable energy sources, energy storage and power-electronics components, all based on direct current (DC), is fundamentally changing the electrical energy system of today that is based on alternating current ...