Modelling of overheating in solar photovoltaic cell plates with local electric heat sources

Abstract

A model and a calculation scheme that allow describing and investigating temperature and voltage drop distributions in solar photovoltaic cell plates in the presence of an overvoltage displacing the p-n junction of photovoltaic cell in the reverse direction are developed. It is found that for a solar photocell the temperature distribution stabilizes within several seconds after the overvoltage onset. In this case, the maximum temperature and size of the region of local heating (called a “hot spot”) are set. An increase in the overvoltage value leads to an increase in the maximum temperature and the “hot spot” size. For solar cells with lower electrical resistances, local heating takes place at lower overvoltages and temperatures and “hot spot” sizes of are smaller.