Photovoltaic panel hot spot effect diagram

What is a hot spot in a PV module?

In a photovoltaic (PV) module, a hot spot describes an over proportional heating of a single solar cell or a cell part compared to the surrounding cells. It is a typical degradation mode in PV modules. Hot spots can origin, if one solar cell, or just a part of it, produces less carrier compared to the other cells connected in series.

Why do photovoltaic modules have hot spots?

The large-scale hot-spot phenomena may develop from localized temperatures anomaly within a unit cell in the module while current researches generally ignored this small-scale but important problem. In this paper, close inspection of localized hot spots within photovoltaic modules is conducted with a xenon lamp of simulating the solar irradiation.

How do hot spots affect PV power stations?

The hot-spot phenomena suppress the output photocurrent of PV modules, reducing the economic benefits of PV power stations. More seriously, hot spots may expand from one cell to a mass of cells around the original one, causing irreversible damage to the modules , .

What is the hot spot effect on a solar panel?

What is the hot spot effect? A hot spot on a solar panel is an area that experiences higher temperatures than the rest of the panel. They are common and very difficult to predict. Cell stress can typically reach as high as 150°C, which can lead to permanent and irreversible damage such as glass cracking, cell degradation, etc.

What is a hot spot effect?

The hot spot effect within the realm of solar panels denotes the occurrence of concentrated overheating on the surface of an individual solar cell.

What causes hot spotting in PV systems?

The stability of the modules can be also affected by the degradation of packaging materials, doped semiconductors and cell interconnections . Shading, degradation or other unexpected failures may lead to the local heating sources in PV modules , which result in the unusual phenomenon, i.e., hot spotting in PV systems .