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This study examined the potential application of metallic coatings to mitigate the adverse effects of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) light on photovoltaic modules. Titanium coatings were applied on low-iron glass surfaces using magnetron sputtering at powers of 1000, 1250, 1500, 1750, 2000, and 2500 W. The module with uncoated glass served as a reference. The Ti layer thickness varied from 7 nm to 20 nm. Transmittance and reflectance spectra were used to calculate visible light transmittance Lt, UV light transmittance Ltuv, solar transmittance g, and visible light reflectance Lr. The obtained parameters indicated that the thinnest Ti layer (1000 W) coating did not significantly affect light transmittance, but thicker layers did, altering the Lt, g, and Lr factors. However, every sample noticeably changed Ltuv, probably due to the natural formation of a UV-reflective thin TiO2 layer. The differences in fill factor (FF) were minimal, but thicker coatings resulted in lower open-circuit voltages (Uoc) and short-circuit currents (Isc), leading to a reduction in power conversion efficiency (PCE). Notably, a Ti coating deposited at 2500 W reduced the power of the photovoltaic module by 78% compared to the uncoated sample but may protect modules against the unwanted effects of overheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A perfect blackbody can emit radiation of up to 480 Wm-2 at 60°C into the atmospheric window in the sky. However, designing such ARC (antireflective coating) for solar cells that can work as ARC and radiative coolers is challenging. A crystalline solar module having a single ARC of Si3N4 can emit radiation into the sky at about 84 Wm-2. In Contrast, at 35°C ambient temperature, our suggested ARC using Si3N4/SiO2/PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) may emit around 346 Wm-2. This significant thermal emission lowers the solar module's temperature from 60.15°C to 48.55°C. This reduction in the solar module's temperature leads to an efficiency improvement of about 0.56%, and more importantly, the module's lifetime will increase by 25 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable fabrication of large‐area perovskite films with antisolvent‐free printing techniques requires high‐volatility solvents, such as 2‐methoxyethanol (2ME), to formulate precursor inks. However, the fabrication of high‐quality cesium–formamidinium (Cs–FA) perovskites has been hampered using volatile solvents due to their poor coordination with the perovskite precursors. Here, this issue is resolved by re‐formulating a 2ME‐based Cs0.05FA0.95PbI3 ink using pre‐synthesized single crystals as the precursor instead of the conventional mixture of raw powders. The key to obtaining high‐quality Cs–FA films lies in the removal of colloidal particles from the ink and hence the suppression of colloid‐induced heterogeneous nucleation, which kinetically facilitates the growth of as‐formed crystals toward larger grains and improved film crystallinity. Employing the precursor‐engineered volatile ink in the vacuum‐free, fully printing processing of solar cells (with carbon electrode), a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.3%, a T80 (80% of initial PCE) of 1000 h in ISOS‐L‐2I (85 °C/1 Sun) aging test and a substantially reduced bill of materials are obtained. The reliable coating methodology ultimately enables the fabrication of carbon‐electrode mini solar modules with a stabilized PCE of 16.2% (average 15.6%) representing the record value among the fully printed counterparts and a key milestone toward meeting the objectives for a scalable photovoltaic technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the efficacy of applying a Lorentz force to improve the efficiency of a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) system featuring a finned duct, while also addressing challenges associated with dust accumulation. The magnetic field helps to prevent nanoparticle aggregation, enhancing the cooling process. The use of a finned duct combined with a nanofluid as the cooling medium efficiently dissipates excess heat from the silicon layer. Dust accumulation on the glass layer reduces transmissivity, negatively impacting system performance. The magnetic field's interaction with the nanoparticles enhances convective cooling of the upper layer, leading to an overall improvement in performance. Increased pumping power results in higher cooling rates, with improvements of approximately 3.48 % in thermal efficiency (ηth), 75.01 % in thermoelectric generator efficiency (ηTEG), and 39.37 % in photovoltaic efficiency (ηPV). An increase in the Hartmann number (Ha) improves ηth by about 1.87 %, with corresponding enhancements in electrical performance components. A higher concentration of ferrofluid further boosts performance, with the effect being roughly 1.7 times more significant in the absence of MHD compared to when Ha = 97. Dust presence decreases ηth, ηTEG, and ηPV by approximately 9.39 %, 8.55 %, and 25.77 %, respectively. Furthermore, the presence of Ha diminishes the influence of Vin on ηth by around 1.33 %.

In this work an application of two texturized glasses as a front side material for PV (photovoltaic) system in architectural and designed installation was analysed taking into account optical, topographic, electrical and aesthetic aspects. Since Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) is becoming increasingly popular, expanding the scope of installation on facades, building walls and various types of glazing its aesthetics aspects become one of the key parameters. For some BIPV application a surface topography such as roughness and or matte surface meeting aesthetic requirements is crucial. Additionally, in the case of installations in urban spaces, an important parameter is the low reflectance value and, consequently, the reduction of light reflections that can blind drivers. The measurements carried out show that the use of glass with a textured surface slightly reduces the electrical parameters of the PV system: around 5% for power (W) while significantly reducing the reflection parameters (light reflection) up to 88% in visible (VIS) region.

The main objective of this research is to determine the overall performance value of the pneumatic actuator system on a solar-powered pineapple cutting machine. The research methods used are literature study and experimental laboratory. The laboratory experimental method is very suitable to be applied to post-harvest agricultural machines with a small capacity where the research is only focused on the success of the actuator system in carrying out pineapple cutting movements automatically by utilizing pressurized air coming from the compressor. The variation in air pressure for the pneumatic actuator is set at the air pressure, namely 3, 4, and 5 Bar. The actual peeling capacity using air pressure of 3 Bar resulted in 160 pineapple cutting/per hour, 170 fruit/per hour for 4 Bar, 173 bar for 5 bar, and 173 fruit/per hour manually. The efficiency of peeling pineapple manually was 82.8% while using a pneumatic actuator system it was 70.6%. The DC electrical energy storage capacity required for the pneumatic actuator drive system is a battery with a capacity of 80 Ah 12 v which is supplied by electrical energy originating from a 200 Wp solar panel. Solar panels of this size are sufficient to equip a pneumatic actuator system for stripping with capacity of 1 hour/day. The results of this study are expected provide the latest reference for determining the optimal productivity of solar-powered pineapple cutting machines today.

Present study employes a picosecond laser (532 nm) for selective P1 laser scribing on the indium tin oxide (ITO) layer and subsequent fine‐tuning of P1 scribing conditions with machine learning (ML) techniques. Initially, the scribing is performed by varying different laser parameters and further evaluate them via an optical microscope and two probe resistivity measurements. The corresponding scribing width and sheet resistance data are used as input databases for ML analysis. The classification and regression tree (CART)‐based ML analysis revealed that median pulse energy <5.7 μJ insufficient to separate the adjacent scribing regions. While pulse energy >5.7 μJ, APL > 35%, LSO > 46%, and processing speed ≥1250 mm s−1 gives ≥16 μm of scribing width. Further, the decision tree (DT) analysis showed that pulse energy of ≥8.1 μJ, and LSO ≥ 37% are required for electrically isolated lines. The feature importance score suggests that laser fluence and pulse energy determined the scribing width, whereas electrical isolation strongly depends on LSO and processing speed. Finally, the ML achieved conditions experimentally validated and reassessed via scanning electron microscope, and atomic force microscopy aligns well with optical microscope measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the performance of a 14.04 kWp grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) installation consisting of monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon and bifacial glass–glass monocrystalline silicon modules. The photovoltaic system was mounted in Poland, a location characterized by temperate climate conditions. On the basis of the obtained results, the photovoltaic parameters were determined in accordance with the international standard. The annual energy yield of the entire system was 1033 kWh/kWp, and the performance ratio achieved was 83%. The highest average daily final yield was in the range of 4.0–4.5 kWh/kWp for each photovoltaic technology under investigation. In the cold part of the year, the efficiency of the photovoltaic modules was estimated to be 15%, and it was estimated to be 7% during the warm part of the year. Array capture losses accounted for around 0.75 kWh/kWp of energy loss per day, whereas the inverter efficiency was over 95% during the months that are beneficial for energy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Reliable fabrication of large‐area perovskite films with antisolvent‐free printing techniques requires high‐volatility solvents, such as 2‐methoxyethanol (2ME), to formulate precursor inks. However, the fabrication of high‐quality cesium–formamidinium (Cs–FA) perovskites has been hampered using volatile solvents due to their poor coordination with the perovskite precursors. Here, this issue is resolved by re‐formulating a 2ME‐based Cs0.05FA0.95PbI3 ink using pre‐synthesized single crystals as the precursor instead of the conventional mixture of raw powders. The key to obtaining high‐quality Cs–FA films lies in the removal of colloidal particles from the ink and hence the suppression of colloid‐induced heterogeneous nucleation, which kinetically facilitates the growth of as‐formed crystals toward larger grains and improved film crystallinity. Employing the precursor‐engineered volatile ink in the vacuum‐free, fully printing processing of solar cells (with carbon electrode), a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.3%, a T80 (80% of initial PCE) of 1000 h in ISOS‐L‐2I (85 °C/1 Sun) aging test and a substantially reduced bill of materials are obtained. The reliable coating methodology ultimately enables the fabrication of carbon‐electrode mini solar modules with a stabilized PCE of 16.2% (average 15.6%) representing the record value among the fully printed counterparts and a key milestone toward meeting the objectives for a scalable photovoltaic technology.

Despite the great success of perovskite photovoltaics in terms of device efficiency and stability using laboratory‐scale spin‐coating methods, the demand for high‐throughput and cost‐effective solutions remains unresolved and rarely reported because of the complicated nature of perovskite crystallization. In this work, we propose a stable precursor ink design strategy to control the solvent volatilization and perovskite crystallization to enable the wide speed window printing (0.3 to 18.0 m/min) of phase‐pure FAPbI3 perovskite solar cells (pero‐SCs) in ambient atmosphere. The FAPbI3 perovskite precursor ink uses volatile acetonitrile (ACN) as the main solvent with DMF and DMSO as coordination additives is beneficial to improve the ink stability, inhibit the coffee rings, and the complicated intermediate FAPbI3 phases, delivering high‐quality pin‐hole free and phase‐pure FAPbI3 perovskite films with large‐scale uniformity. Ultimately, small‐area FAPbI3 pero‐SCs (0.062 cm2) and large‐area modules (15.64 cm2) achieved remarkable efficiencies of 24.32 % and 21.90 %, respectively, whereas the PCE of the devices can be maintained at 23.76 % when the printing speed increases to 18.0 m/min. Specifically, the unencapsulated device exhibits superior operational stability with T90>1350 h. This work represents a step towards the scalable, cost‐effective manufacturing of perovskite photovoltaics with both high performance and high throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work focused on the verification of the electrical parameters and the durability of side connectors installed in glass–glass photovoltaic modules. Ensuring the safe use of photovoltaic modules is achieved, among others, by using electrical connectors connecting the PV cell circuit inside the laminate with an external electric cable. In most of the cases for standard PV modules, the electrical connector in the form of a junction box is attached from the back side of the PV module. The junction box is glued to the module surface with silicone where the busbars were previously brought out of the laminate through specially prepared holes. An alternative method is to place connectors on the edge of the module, laminating part of it. In such a case, the specially prepared "wings" of the connector are tightly and permanently connected using laminating foil, between two glass panes protecting against an electrical breakdown. Additionally, this approach eliminates the process of preparing holes on the back side of the module, which is especially complicated and time-consuming in the case of glass–glass modules. Moreover, side connectors are desirable in BIPV applications because they allow for a more flexible design of installations on façades and walls of buildings. A series of samples were prepared in the form of PV G-G modules with side connectors, which were then subjected to testing the connectors for the influence of environmental conditions. All samples were characterized before and after the effect of environmental conditions according to PN-EN-61215-2 standards. Insulation resistance tests were performed in dry and wet conditions, ensuring full contact of the tested sample with water. For all modules, before being placed in the climatic chamber, the resistance values were far above the minimum value required by the standards, allowing the module to be safely used. For the dry tests, the resistance values were in the range of GΩ, while for the wet tests, the obtained values were in the range of MΩ. In further work, the modules were subjected to environmental influences in accordance with MQT-11, MQT-12, and MQT-13 and then subjected to electrical measurements again. A simulation of the impact of changing climatic conditions on the module test showed that the insulation resistance value is reduced by an order of magnitude for both the dry and wet tests. Additionally, one can observe visual changes where the lamination foil is in contact with the connector. The measurements carried out in this work show the potential of side connectors and their advantage over rear junction boxes, but also the technological challenges that need to be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question asked by all researchers is when solar panels will replace the national grid, especially in the domestic sector. In this study, a rooftop stand-alone solar electric system is designed to provide all the electrical power to a house in BaghdadIraq, using a (How to design PV system) simulation program. The feasibility of this system compared to the performance of the national electric grid and the system of private diesel generators is determined. The proposed solar system capacity is (25 kW), and the space required and the energy payback time are (360 m² and 7.82 years), respectively. By using the current system, the net CO2 mitigation amount is 499,518.2 tons for 30-year. The kilowatt-hour costs for the subsidized national grid, private diesel generators, and the present solar system is 0.01865$, 0.1509$, and $0.108, respectively. The kilowatt cost can reach 0.25kWh if the battery replacement cost is estimated; so photovoltaic systems are still a good choice to generate electricity instead of using the national grid. If solar PV systems to generate electricity are used instead of the national grid, the financial and environmental profits will be good enough. The reason for the study is because the costs of off-grid solar PV systems are high, no specific studies have emerged on such vital topics. Currently, loans from government banks have reduced the impact of this negative factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of experimental research on the influence of the features of the electrical circuit parameters of the solar module on the functioning of its passive photocell with a parallel-connected bypass critical thermistor as a method of increasing the solar module reliability of are presented. Glass-ceramic materials based on vanadium dioxide and vanadium-phosphate glass V2O5-P2O5 were used as thermistor, which change the electrical resistance in leaps and bounds by 1.5-2 orders of magnitude in the temperature range of 70 0С. The main attention is paid to the study of the patterns of behavior of the functional electrical and thermal characteristics of such elements depending on the amplitude of overvoltage and load resistance. It was found that as the amplitude of the overvoltage on the passive (shaded or damaged) photocell increases, the duration of the process of switching the bypass thermistor to the highly conductive state decreases, the voltage drop after switching decreases sharply (to values not exceeding 2 V) and changes weakly. An increase in the load resistance leads to a decrease in the current through the thermistor and an increase in the duration of the transient process. With thermal contact between the passive photocell and the bypass thermistor, switching is observed at lower overvoltages. In the absence of such a contact, the temperature to which the photocell is heated changes insignificantly in a steady state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present study employes a picosecond laser (532 nm) for selective P1 laser scribing on the indium tin oxide (ITO) layer and subsequent fine‐tuning of P1 scribing conditions with machine learning (ML) techniques. Initially, the scribing is performed by varying different laser parameters and further evaluate them via an optical microscope and two probe resistivity measurements. The corresponding scribing width and sheet resistance data are used as input databases for ML analysis. The classification and regression tree (CART)‐based ML analysis revealed that median pulse energy 5.7 μJ, APL > 35%, LSO > 46%, and processing speed ≥1250 mm s−1 gives ≥16 μm of scribing width. Further, the decision tree (DT) analysis showed that pulse energy of ≥8.1 μJ, and LSO ≥ 37% are required for electrically isolated lines. The feature importance score suggests that laser fluence and pulse energy determined the scribing width, whereas electrical isolation strongly depends on LSO and processing speed. Finally, the ML achieved conditions experimentally validated and reassessed via scanning electron microscope, and atomic force microscopy aligns well with optical microscope measurements.

Solar energy is the most abundant source of energy among renewable energies, which can be directly converted into electricity by solar modules. To tackle the low energy output of solar modules in places where there are not enough spaces to install many solar modules, the use of reflectors is recommended. The use of reflectors increases the solar radiation on the surface of the module, hence will boost its power output. In this study, two-dimensional simulations were performed using ANSYS Fluent 2021 R2 package software in which the effects of a flat plate, parabolic, and hybrid reflectors on the temperature and efficiency of the module were investigated. The numerical simulation of the current study was validated against an experimental case study. Although there were so many simplifications and assumptions for the validation, the maximum deviation between the present numerical result and the experimental was less than 3.86%, which certifies the results of this paper. Based on the output, the surface temperature of the solar module with ˚85 flat plate reflector and ˚85 parabolic reflector reached 360.82 (K) and 371.11 (K), respectively, while the temperature with ˚50 reflector for both parabolic and flat plate modes reached 345.94 (K) and 346 (K), which are approximately equal. It was also observed that with increasing the angle of flat and parabolic reflectors, the module temperature increased, and parabolic reflectors had higher temperatures at higher angles. The module temperature using a type 6 reflector increased by 7.14% and 0.92% compared to the ˚80 flat plate reflector and ˚80 parabolic reflector, respectively. In terms of efficiency, since reflectors will intensify the solar radiation on a solar module surface, it will enhance the operating temperature of the module so that in all cases with reflectors, the efficiency will drop from an initial maximum value to a certain minimum value. This drop is more significant in the parabolic reflectors compared to the flat plate reflectors.

The carnivorous plant algorithm (CPA), which was recently proposed for solving optimization problems, is a population-based optimization algorithm inspired by plants. In this study, the exploitation phase of the CPA was improved with the teaching factor strategy in order to achieve a balance between the exploration and exploitation capabilities of CPA, minimize getting stuck in local minima, and produce more stable results. The improved CPA is called the I-CPA. To test the performance of the proposed I-CPA, it was applied to CEC2017 functions. In addition, the proposed I-CPA was applied to the problem of identifying the optimum parameter values of various solar photovoltaic modules, which is one of the real-world optimization problems. According to the experimental results, the best value of the root mean square error (RMSE) ratio between the standard data and simulation data was obtained with the I-CPA method. The Friedman mean rank statistical analyses were also performed for both problems. As a result of the analyses, it was observed that the I-CPA produced statistically significant results compared to some classical and modern metaheuristics. Thus, it can be said that the proposed I-CPA achieves successful and competitive results in identifying the parameters of solar photovoltaic modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the performance of a 14.04 kWp grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) installation consisting of monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon and bifacial glass–glass monocrystalline silicon modules. The photovoltaic system was mounted in Poland, a location characterized by temperate climate conditions. On the basis of the obtained results, the photovoltaic parameters were determined in accordance with the international standard. The annual energy yield of the entire system was 1033 kWh/kWp, and the performance ratio achieved was 83%. The highest average daily final yield was in the range of 4.0–4.5 kWh/kWp for each photovoltaic technology under investigation. In the cold part of the year, the efficiency of the photovoltaic modules was estimated to be 15%, and it was estimated to be 7% during the warm part of the year. Array capture losses accounted for around 0.75 kWh/kWp of energy loss per day, whereas the inverter efficiency was over 95% during the months that are beneficial for energy production.

The effects of various parameters of the solar panel and surrounding structure on wind loads acting on solar panels have been extensively investigated in prior studies. However, the parameter of cornice length has not been considered. With varying lengths of cornices, solar panels can be positioned either near or far away from the roof corner and edge, which are the locations where the largest wind-induced suction forces are likely to occur. To examine the effects of cornices, a wind tunnel test was conducted to measure the wind pressures on a solar module installed on a residential gable roof building. The cornice lengths varied from 0 m to 1.6 m, with an interval of 0.4 m. The results show that when wind blows perpendicular to the roof ridge, cornice can reduce the mean, STD, and peak pressure coefficients on the upper and lower surfaces and resulting net values. However, it should be noted that the most unfavorable area-averaged minimum peaks in the middle and trailing zones exhibit a gradual increase with the growing cornice length. Considering the potential risk of solar module failure resulting from high wind-induced suction forces, more caution is needed when installing solar modules on roofs with larger cornices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we propose a new method for manufacturing busbars in photovoltaic modules for different solar cell generations, focusing on 1st and 3rd generations. The method is based on high-pressure spray coating using nanometric metallic powder. Our focus is primarily on optimizing conductive paths for applications involving conductive layers used in 3rd generation solar cells, such as quantum dot solar cell, dye-sensitized solar cell, and silicon-based solar cells on glass-glass architecture for building-integrated photovoltaic. The advantages of the proposed method include the possibility of reducing the material quantity in the conductive paths and creating various shapes on the surface, including bent substrates. This paper examines the influence of the proposed high-pressure spraying technique using metallic particles on the morphology of the resulting conductive paths, interface characteristics, and electrical parameters. Conductive paths were created on four different layers commonly used in photovoltaic systems, including transparent conductive oxide, Cu, Ti, and atomic layer deposition processed Al2O3. The use of high-pressure technology enables the production of conductive layers with strong adhesion to the substrate and precise control of the spatial parameters of conductive paths. Furthermore, the temperature recorded during the deposition process does not exceed 385 K, making this technique suitable for various types of substrates, including glass and silicon. Additionally, the produced layers exhibit low resistance, measuring less than 0.3 . Finally, the mechanical resistance, as determined through tearing tests, as well as environmental and time stability, have been confirmed for the produced paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Robustness of a non-destructive method for measuring EQE of cells in PV module with various non-idealities is explored. • A PSpice model was developed for a 60-cell module with 3 bypass diodes based on the 2-diode model for individual cells. • Errors in the EQE with target cell shading, load point, cell parameters variation, AC light are analyzed and quantified. • The combined error from all the mentioned error sources is less than 3% even for a target cell with low shunt resistance. • The usage of programmable load is described with appropriate correction factors- reduces the overall cost of the system. Accurate measurement of external quantum efficiency(EQE) of cells embedded in PV modules is critical for reducing the uncertainty of the flash I-V measurements during secondary calibration of PV modules. This paper presents detailed analysis and quantification of possible sources of errors due to various factors such as shading of target cell, load point determination, variance in cell-to-cell electrical properties and use of AC probe light. Moreover, the technique is also extended for measuring EQE of cells in the degraded modules by changing different cell parameters, thus enabling use of this technique for non-destructive failure analysis. Separate analysis for biasing the module with a programmable load and a four-quadrant power supply is presented. Appropriate correction factors are obtained for accurate load point determination for the two cases with less than 3 % error in the absolute EQE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brushless DC Motor drive systems are used widely with renewable energy resources. The power converter controlling technique increases the performance by novel techniques and algorithms. Conventional approaches are mostly focused on buck converter, Fuzzy logic control with various switching activity. In this proposed research work, the QPSO (Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm) is used on the switching state of converter from the generation unit of solar module. Through the duty cycle pulse from optimization function, the MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor) of the Boost converter gets switched when BLDC (Brushless Direct Current Motor) motor drive system requires power. Voltage Source three phase inverter and Boost converter is controlled by proportional-integral (PI) controller. Based on the BLDC drive, the load utilized from the solar generating module. Experimental results analyzed every module of the proposed grid system, which are solar generation utilizes the irradiance and temperature depends on this the Photovoltaics (PV) power is generated and the QPSO with Duty cycle switching state is determined. The Boost converter module is boost stage based on generation and load is obtained. Single Ended Primary Inductor Converter (SEPIC) and Zeta converter model is compared with the proposed logic; the proposed boost converter achieves the results. Three phase inverter control, PI, and BLDC motor drive results. Thus the proposed grid model is constructed to obtain the better performance results than most recent literatures. Overall design model is done by using MATLAB/Simulink 2020a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partial shading of PV plants mitigate the maximum power generation of solar modules. As a result, the power output is lower than expected. It is affected not only by the number of shaded modules but also by the shaded patterns. This paper examined a PV plant rated at 15 kW connected in series-parallel for various shading patterns, such as row-wise and column-wise partial shading. This solar plant's behavior is also investigated under various irradiation levels and degrees of shading. The number of solar modules required for this plant was also evaluated. The performance results of solar modules under partial shading conditions, such as power, voltage, and current, are revealed by using the Matlab/Simulik model. From the analysis, the result shows that the column-wise shading condition generates more power output than the row-wise shading condition.

In this paper, an attempt is made to build an effective solar photovoltaic (PV) system considering geographical aspects such as irradiance and temperature using the single-diode equation model. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of various DC-DC converters (buck, boost, inverting buck-boost, non-inverting buck-boost (NIBB), Cuk, and single-ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC)) connected to a solar photovoltaic (PV) module was conducted in order to determine the optimal combination of DC-DC converter and solar PV. Moreover, the R, L, and C parameters for the converters have also been proposed to gain optimum efficiency from the solar PV system, and it has been shown that increasing the resistance decreases the ripple value. Furthermore, it has been shown that Ns and Np values of 36 and 1, respectively, result in 199 W of output power from a solar PV module at the maximum power point (48 V). The obtained results show that NIBB and SEPIC simulations gave the best results, with efficiencies of 93.27% and 92.35%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work focused on the verification of the electrical parameters and the durability of side connectors installed in glass–glass photovoltaic modules. Ensuring the safe use of photovoltaic modules is achieved, among others, by using electrical connectors connecting the PV cell circuit inside the laminate with an external electric cable. In most of the cases for standard PV modules, the electrical connector in the form of a junction box is attached from the back side of the PV module. The junction box is glued to the module surface with silicone where the busbars were previously brought out of the laminate through specially prepared holes. An alternative method is to place connectors on the edge of the module, laminating part of it. In such a case, the specially prepared “wings” of the connector are tightly and permanently connected using laminating foil, between two glass panes protecting against an electrical breakdown. Additionally, this approach eliminates the process of preparing holes on the back side of the module, which is especially complicated and time-consuming in the case of glass–glass modules. Moreover, side connectors are desirable in BIPV applications because they allow for a more flexible design of installations on façades and walls of buildings. A series of samples were prepared in the form of PV G-G modules with side connectors, which were then subjected to testing the connectors for the influence of environmental conditions. All samples were characterized before and after the effect of environmental conditions according to PN-EN-61215-2 standards. Insulation resistance tests were performed in dry and wet conditions, ensuring full contact of the tested sample with water. For all modules, before being placed in the climatic chamber, the resistance values were far above the minimum value required by the standards, allowing the module to be safely used. For the dry tests, the resistance values were in the range of GΩ, while for the wet tests, the obtained values were in the range of MΩ. In further work, the modules were subjected to environmental influences in accordance with MQT-11, MQT-12, and MQT-13 and then subjected to electrical measurements again. A simulation of the impact of changing climatic conditions on the module test showed that the insulation resistance value is reduced by an order of magnitude for both the dry and wet tests. Additionally, one can observe visual changes where the lamination foil is in contact with the connector. The measurements carried out in this work show the potential of side connectors and their advantage over rear junction boxes, but also the technological challenges that need to be overcome.

To achieve a monolithic series interconnection of tandem solar cell devices consisting of a perovskite top cell and a CIGSe bottom cell, a two-terminal interconnection scheme is introduced that includes an additional, fourth patterning step, the so-called iso-cut, which separates the window layer stack between the two solar cells. The implementation of this interconnection scheme requires a process development for a total of four structuring steps, which was achieved by systematically varying the laser parameters. Based on a detailed characterization of the individual scribe line properties with respect to their scribe line depth, morphology, electrical functionality, chemical composition and their influence on adjacent and underlying layers, the optimal patterning parameters and suitable process windows were derived for each step, which is a prerequisite for a loss-free monolithic series interconnection in a tandem module. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carnivorous plant algorithm (CPA), which was recently proposed for solving optimization problems, is a population-based optimization algorithm inspired by plants. In this study, the exploitation phase of the CPA was improved with the teaching factor strategy in order to achieve a balance between the exploration and exploitation capabilities of CPA, minimize getting stuck in local minima, and produce more stable results. The improved CPA is called the I-CPA. To test the performance of the proposed I-CPA, it was applied to CEC2017 functions. In addition, the proposed I-CPA was applied to the problem of identifying the optimum parameter values of various solar photovoltaic modules, which is one of the real-world optimization problems. According to the experimental results, the best value of the root mean square error (RMSE) ratio between the standard data and simulation data was obtained with the I-CPA method. The Friedman mean rank statistical analyses were also performed for both problems. As a result of the analyses, it was observed that the I-CPA produced statistically significant results compared to some classical and modern metaheuristics. Thus, it can be said that the proposed I-CPA achieves successful and competitive results in identifying the parameters of solar photovoltaic modules.

Measurement data based on current and voltage of photovoltaic (PV) systems and the establishment of more accurate and stable solar system models are of typical significance for the design, control, evaluation and optimization of PV systems. Accurate and stable parameter evaluation for PV systems needs to be based on more efficient optimization techniques to achieve efficient energy conversion from solar energy. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel and efficient optimization technique enhanced colony predation algorithm to solve the complex PV parameter identification problem named ECPA. By fusing extremal optimization strategy and Nelder–Mead simplex method enables ECPA to further develop in the neighborhood of potential optimal solutions while improving the position of inferior agent candidates, and finally has the ability to search globally beyond the local optimum. To verify the optimization efficiency of ECPA, the first part verifies the efficiency of ECPA in solving complex high‐dimensional and multimodal problems by conducting competitive comparison experiments at the IEEE CEC 2020 benchmark case. In the second part, ECPA is compared with nine similar published state‐of‐the‐art algorithms, and competitive tests for PV parameter identification under single diode model, double diode model, triple diode model and PV module model (PV) are conducted. Finally, we focused on three different commercial PV models (thin film ST40, monocrystalline SM55, and multicrystalline KC200GT) to test the accuracy of ECPA in evaluating PV parameters. The test results show that ECPA is able to maintain a high level of accuracy and stability when dealing with commercial PV models in complex environments. The experimental results demonstrate that ECPA outperforms other algorithms in terms of data fitting, stability, convergence speed and convergence accuracy. All the competitive experimental results show that ECPA can be a novel technique with the best performance for identifying the parameters to be determined in solar PV systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) parameters estimation from the experimental current and voltage data of PV modules is vital for monitoring and evaluating the performance of PV power generation systems. Moreover, the PV parameters can be used to predict current-voltage (I-V) behavior to control the power output of the PV modules. This paper aimed to propose an improved differential evolution (DE) integrated with a dynamic population sizing strategy to estimate the PV module model parameters accurately. This study used two popular PV module technologies, i.e., poly-crystalline and mono-crystalline. The optimized PV parameters were validated with the measured data and compared with other recent meta-heuristic algorithms. The proposed population dynamic differential evolution (PDDE) algorithm demonstrated high accuracy in estimating PV parameters and provided perfect approximations of the measured I-V and power-voltage (P-V) data from real PV modules. The PDDE obtained the best and the mean RMSE value of 2.4251E-03 on the poly-crystalline Photowatt-PWP201, while the best and the mean RMSE value on the mono-crystalline STM6-40/36 was 1.7298E-03. The PDDE algorithm showed outstanding accuracy performance and was competitive with the conventional DE and the existing algorithms in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal cycling (TC) induces defects in solar modules. The electroluminescence technique has been used to characterize the defects of solar modules, which are represented by a rectangular dark area (RDA) on the cell. In this study, the physical meaning of the RDA phenomenon on a solar module was investigated. It is proven that the RDA indicates cracks in the solder layer of the ribbon wire rather than broken electrode fingers in the solar module. For the proof, a test of TC was conducted on Si solar modules while monitoring the RDAs by EL during TC. Next, a failure analysis was performed on the RDAs, proving that the locations of the RDA coincided with the locations of the cracks in the solder layer between the Cu layer and Si wafer. Quantitative time analysis revealed that the RDA incidence in cells increased from 0 to 18% on average over TC 1000. In addition, the larger RDA incidence at the ends of the ribbon wires of the cell was detected and explained based on the previous study result of the high increases in shear strains of the solder layer at all ends of the ribbon wire after TC. Finally, a structural numerical simulation was performed to show a low probability of cracking at the electrode finger during TC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) emerging as a promising photovoltaic technology with high efficiency and low manufacturing cost have attracted the attention from all over the world. Both the efficiency and stability of PSCs have increased steadily in recent years, and the research on reducing lead leakage and developing eco-friendly lead-free perovskites pushes forward the commercialization of PSCs step by step. This review summarizes the main progress of PSCs in 2020 and 2021 from the aspects of efficiency, stability, perovskite-based tandem devices, and lead-free PSCs. Moreover, a brief discussion on the development of PSC modules and its challenges toward practical application is provided.

Electrical energy generation in solar modules is mainly limited by the increase in their temperature, and a heat removal process plays an important role. The main goal of the experiment was to keep the temperature of the cooled module below 47 °C through a series of the five short cooling and heating cycles and to determine the changes in the solar module output power during the cooling process with 96% ethyl alcohol. The optimal duration of the cooling cycles was determined to be between 3–6 min and for the heating process, it was 4–5 min. During the heating and cooling cycles the temperature of the cooled module did not exceed 42.1 °C. At the end of five active cooling cycles the temperature difference of 22.6 °C was achieved. The biggest difference in power between the cooled and uncooled module was 4.9%. The solar module efficiency was increased by 3.2%. It was concluded that alcohol, due to its evaporative losses, is not a viable cooling agent for solar modules. Nevertheless, it can serve as a potent additive in both active and passive cooling systems to augment the output power of solar modules.

Typical fabrication methods for laboratory‐scale (<1 cm2) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are undeniably not scalable and the control of crystallization of large‐area perovskite layer for commercial sized modules is also particularly challenging. Here, a seed‐assisted crystallization approach is demonstrated through addition of alkali salts, CsPbBr3 and KPb2Br5, to the perovskite precursor ink for enabling homogeneous and highly crystalline large‐area Cs0.15FA0.85Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3 (CsFA) perovskite films via scalable slot‐die coating technique. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis reveals the segregation of potassium ions at SnO2/perovskite interface which serve as nucleation sites for the crystallization of perovskite layer. The uniformly slot‐die coated CsFA films (100 cm2) from the additives containing precursor inks possess larger grains with enhanced optoelectronic properties and the corresponding devices display higher reproducibility and consistency. A champion device efficiency of 18.94% under 1 sun illumination for slot‐die coated PSCs in n‐type/intrinsic/p‐type structure is demonstrated with improved stability with 82% of its initial efficiency tested at 65 °C for 1150 h. The slot‐die coated methylammonium‐free perovskite module with an active area of 57.5 cm2 shows an efficiency of 16.22% and retains 82% of its initial efficiency after 4800 h under 30% relative humidity without encapsulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar modules have current and voltage characteristics that are non-linear, so efforts must always be made to work at the maximum power point so that no energy is wasted. The characteristics of the solar module will change depending on the level of radiation and temperature which causes the output power of the solar module to fluctuate and become unstable. To reduce oscillations in the output power of the solar module, the Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) method used using the boost converter. Several studies have been done to maximize the output power of solar panels, one of which is by using namely by using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). This study aims to obtain the maximum power point in a set of solar modules arranged in series and parallel through the performance of the FLC method. In tracking the maximum power point during normal operation, the fuzzy method works together with a boost converter. Fuzzy-based MPPT was tested on a solar module under several radiation and temperature conditions using Matlab / Simulink software. The Fuzzy design method shows better results compared to other methods. The results obtained show the advantages of the FLC method in terms settling time, power loss, and oscillation at the point of the operating system.

• An enhanced political optimizer (QNMPO) is proposed to realize the extraction of photovoltaic models parameters. • The performance of the proposed QNMPO algorithm is compared with some well-known competing algorithms. • The stability performance of QNMPO was tested on three commercial PV models at different temperature levels and irradiation levels. • QNMPO exhibits better convergence speed and accuracy. Evaluating the PV system parameters is crucial for the more efficient utilization of sustainable solar energy. Due to PV systems' nonlinear and multimodal nature, efficient evaluation of PV system parameters is still a very challenging task. This paper proposes an improved political optimization algorithm, namely the QNMPO algorithm, which combines quantum rotation gate and Nelder-Mead simplex (NMs). It can be used to evaluate unknown parameters of PV systems and solar cells efficiently. In QNMPO, the quantum rotation gate method can rotate the population of agents to a more favorable position for finding the optimal solution, making the individuals in the middle of the population communicate more frequently and enhancing the population's diversity. In addition, the NMs method can improve the solution quality by better searching the neighborhoods near the optimal solution and then strengthen the advantage of local development of the algorithm so that it can converge to the global optimal solution faster. The developed QNMPO algorithm extracts the unknown parameters for single diode, double diode, triple diode and photovoltaic modules in this study. It is compared with some other representative algorithms. The experimental results show that QNMPO outperforms similar algorithms in convergence speed, solution accuracy, and better solution performance. QNMPO was then used to successfully extract the best parameter values for three real PV models (three commercial PV models (thin-film ST40, monocrystalline SM55, and multi crystalline KC200GT)) at different temperatures and different irradiance levels. The results also show that QNMPO performs consistently and accurately enough under varying temperatures and irradiation. Therefore, the QNMPO algorithm proposed in this paper can be a promising parameter extraction method for solar PV systems with good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gallium‐doped passivated emitter and rear cells (PERCs) showed great promise for future advanced highly efficient solar cells. However, there is a lack of information available regarding the field degradation of gallium‐doped PERC solar modules. In this work, the field degradation of gallium‐doped PERC solar modules is investigated and compared with the field degradation of stabilized boron‐doped PERC solar modules. It is remarkable that the peak power degradation curves of the gallium‐doped PERC solar modules present two degradation stages which might be attributed to synthetical results of light‐induced degradation (LID) and light and elevated temperature‐induced degradation (LeTID). The extents of degradation for the gallium‐doped PERC solar modules are smaller than that of the stabilized boron‐doped PERC solar modules. The LID characteristic of the gallium‐doped PERC solar modules is caused by the presence of residual boron in Ga‐doped Cz‐Si wafers which has been demonstrated by the results of inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry. Moreover, a comparative study of daily yield for gallium‐ and boron‐doped PERC photovoltaic arrays is carried out. It was found that the gallium‐doped photovoltaic array has a higher energy yield and shows a better performance ratio than the boron‐doped photovoltaic array. The reason is that the performance degradation and its induced mismatch loss of gallium‐doped solar modules in the field are smaller than that of the boron‐doped solar modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low heat transfer coefficient of ethylene-vinyl acetate hinders heat evacuation, and this causes a rise in temperature of the laminated solar module under AM1.5 spectrum. A new selective radiative antireflective coating (SR-ARC) has been proposed for the temperature reduction of the solar module and also effort has been made to improve the absorption in the 300–1100 nm wavelength range. We have compared the single, dual, triple and quad-layer of different transparent ARC materials with a different combination. In each category, we have optimised the SiO2, Al2O3, Si3N4 and TiO2 thin films layer stack as ARC coating and then compared the stacks for their SR-ARC properties. .

This study investigated the effectiveness of the developed solar photovoltaic (PV) module's surface-to-rear temperature-controlled solenoid valves for PV module cooling application. The cooling fluid is regulated by energizing normally closed (NC) solenoid valve with control parameters as modules rear and surface temperatures. ATmega32 microcontroller was utilized as central processing unit with two (2) LM35 as input sensors and solenoid valve as an output device. Each of 2-LM35 temperature sensors were dedicated to measure module's rear and surface temperatures respectively. The measured temperature values were coded as controlled parameters for regulating cooling fluid discharge by energizing a NC solenoid valve. The system was observed to discharge cooling fluid by energizing the solenoid valve under module's surface and rear temperature difference of less than or equal to 1.50C (Ts-Tr≤1.50C). The module's mean surface temperatures of 49.310C and 54.920C were recorded for temperature-controlled PV cooling applications and a standard solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system. The maximum recorded surface temperatures for temperature-controlled PV cooling and a standard PV/T systems were 54.00C and 57.60C respectively. The mean absorber temperatures of 45.510C and 40.870C were respectively recorded for temperature-controlled PV cooling and standard PV/T. The maximum absorber temperature recorded for temperature-controlled PV cooling and standard PV/T were 48.300C and 41.630C respectively. The solar cells temperature is reduced by 5.38% through solenoid valve temperature controlled solar module cooling application.

To optimize the technological process of manufacturing copper wire coated with solder of the POIN-52 grade, the optimal modes for the tinning temperature, linear velocity, diameter of the diamond die and flux were identified. It was found that the best wire tinning process is achieved when cleaning the surface of a copper wire by the method of electrochemical degreasing. The results of the tests showed that, in terms of mechanical and electrical parameters wire meets the require-ments for electrodes in the manufacture of solar modules. The results of climatic tests of solar modules showed a high degree of reliability with a power loss of 0.86% and thermal cycling tests with a power loss of 0.4%, which is within tolerance.

This article presents the design of an advanced smart grid model with an improved optimal variation strategy by implementing renewable energy sources. The novelty involved in this article is designing a renewable energy-based smart grid system incorporating with Artificial Neural Network for maintaining an improved voltage profile with balanced reactive power level across the grid network. The objective is attained by implementing renewable energy sources, namely solar and wind energy modules, with artificial intelligence techniques for effective reactive power control using DSTATCOM. The power requirement across the power grid network is satisfied by providing solar and wind energy sources managing the smart-grid system's var level. The optimized power is trained on the Feed Forward Neural Network-based for calculating the amount of voltage profile and power loss based on system load. The DSTATCOM is an optimal var compensating device for maintaining the reactive power within the permissible limit across the smart grid system. The proposed system improves the voltage profile, reduces the power loss, and satisfies the grid by managing the system's reactive power balance. The proposed approach is executed in MATLAB/Simulink work site, and the performance is analyzed with three different cases. The smart grid system powered with hybrid energy sources strives to attain the objective functions effectively among the three different cases. Integration of hybrid renewable energy source with Artificial Neural Network achieves an improved voltage profile to about 98.45%, which states that the profile rating has improved from 1.056 to 1.083 p.u minimizations of real power loss has done from to 3.23 MW from 3.80 MW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of the characteristics and electrical performance of photovoltaic (PV) solar modules. Genetic coding is applied to obtain the optimized values of parameters within the constraint limit using the software MATLAB. A single diode model is proposed, considering the series and shunt resistances, to study the impact of solar irradiance and temperature on the power-voltage (P-V) and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and predict the output of solar PV modules. The validation of the model under the standard test conditions (STC) and different values of temperature and insolation is performed, as well as an evaluation using experimentally obtained data from outdoor operating PV modules. The obtained results are also subjected to comply with the manufacturer’s data to ensure that the proposed model does not violate the prescribed tolerance range. The range of variation in current and voltage lies in the domain of 8.21 – 8.5 A and 22 – 23 V, respectively; while the predicted solutions for current and voltage vary from 8.28 – 8.68 A and 23.79 – 24.44 V, respectively. The measured experimental power of the PV module estimated to be 148 – 152 W is predicted from the mathematical model and the obtained values of simulated solution are in the domain of 149 – 157 W. The proposed scheme was found to be very effective at determining the influence of input factors on the modules, which is difficult to determine through experimental means.