Characterisation of the Shunt Resistance due to Potential Induced Degradation (PID) in Crystalline Solar Cells

Abstract

Different solutions have been proposed for the detection of potential induced degradation (PID), however, none of them has been proven reliable and cost effective so far. Therefore, a detection mechanism is required in the field to warn users for PID development. This paper provides a pathway for the early and reliable detection of PID under outdoor conditions, by characterising the shunt resistance (Rsh) of a solar cell since it is a parameter, which is heavily affected by PID before any significant power occurs and could act as a PID detection mechanism. The paper presents results on the characterisation of the shunt resistance at different PID degradation levels and temperatures in an attempt to assess its potential use as a PID detection means.