• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.62-67
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• 2008

In this study, we analyze the electrical characteristics of amorphous silicon thin film photovoltaic module which are installed about 5 years ago. Four modules from PV system are extracted and measured the maximum power change ratio using solar simulator(Class A). Also, infrared camera is used to get thermal distribution characteristics of system. The external appearance change is compared with initial module by naked eye examination. Through this experiment, 31% maximum output power drop is observed. The detail description is specified as the following paper.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.196-201
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• 2015

This paper presents the impact of partial shading on $CuIn_xGa_{(1-x)}Se_2(CIGS)$ photovoltaic(PV) modules with bypass diodes. When the CIGS PV modules were partially shaded, the modules were under conditions of partial reverse bias. We investigated the characterization of the bypass diode and solar cell properties of the CIGS PV modules when these was partially shaded, comparing the results with those for a crystalline silicon module. In crystalline silicon modules, the bypass diode was operated at a partial shade modules of 1.67 % shading. This protected the crystalline silicon module from hot spot damage. In CIGS thin film modules, on the other hand, the bypass diode was not operated before 20 % shading. This caused damage because of hotspots, which occurred as wormlike defects in the CIGS thin film module. Moreover, the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module was operated fully at 60% shading, while the CIGS thin film module was not operated under these conditions. It is known that the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module operated more slowly than that of the crystalline silicon module; this bypass diode also failed to protect the module from damage. This was because of the reverse saturation current of the CIGS thin film, $1.99{\times}10^{-5}A/cm^2$, which was higher than that of crystalline silicon, $8.11{\times}10^{-7}A/cm^2$.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 2017

The building integrated photovoltaic system (BIPV) attracts attention with regard to the future of the photovoltaic (PV) industry. It is because one of the promising national and civilian projects in the country. Since land area is limited, there is considerable interest in BIPV systems with a variety of angles and shapes of PV panels. It is therefore expected to be one of the major fields for the PV industry in the future. Since the irradiation is different from each installation angle, the output can be predicted by the angles. This is critical for a PV system to be operated at maximum power and use an efficient design. The development characteristics of tilted angles based on data results obtained via long-term monitoring need to be analyzed. The ratio of the theoretically available and actual outputs is compared with the installation angles of each PV module to provide a suitable PV system for the user.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2024

CIGS solar cells are thin film solar cells that have excellent light absorption coefficient and can be manufactured with high efficiency through the use of low materials. In Korea, they must pass KS certification for home and commercial installation. KS C 8562 is a standard for evaluating the durability of CIGS and thin film amorphous silicon solar modules and deals with contents such as light, temperature, humidity, and mechanical durability. Unlike general crystalline silicon solar modules, the CIGS solar module has a different behavior of output change through these environmental tests, so if it shows 90% or more of the rated output suggested by the manufacturer after the final test, it is judged to be a suitable product. In this paper, the output before and after individual tests was measured through the test method of KS C 8562 to observe the output change and to discover the vulnerabilities of the CIGS solar module when exposed to various environments. Through this, it was confirmed that humidity exposure was the most vulnerable and that it had output recovery characteristics for light (visible light and ultraviolet rays). This study attempted to present the output behavior characteristics and data of the CIGS module at the time when the high efficiency thin film photovoltaic module market is expected to be created in the future.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.279-283
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• 2014

In this paper, we present an economical and practical standard to install a bypass diode in a thin-film PV module. This method helps to reduce heat generation and to prevent module degradation due to excess current from reverse bias. The experimental results confirm that for different numbers of solar cells, there is a relation between the excess reverse current and the degradation of solar cells in a-Si:H modules. The optimal number of solar cells that can be connected per bypass diode could be obtained through an analysis of the results to effectively suppress the degradation and to reduce the heat generated by the module. This technique could be expanded for use in high power crystalline Si PV modules.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.29-35
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• 2010

This study has been carried out empirical research on Transparent Thin-film BIPV modules, BIPV modules installed on the exterior of the building are applied a laminated module 1kWp, double-glazing module 3kWp and triple-glazing module 1kWp. Applied to the total capacity of BIPV modules are 5kWp. In this study, design and construction process of BIPV systems is presented. In addition, through monitoring of the BIPV system, the temperature and the power characteristics of each module were analyzed. During the measurement period, the module temperature measurement results, the maximum surface temperature of $51.5^{\circ}C$ triple-glazing BIPV module showed the highest, followed by double-glazing BIPV module $49.1^{\circ}C$, $44.7^{\circ}C$ laminated modules, respectively. Power output results, the daily average double-layer modules showed 4.10kWh/day, triple-glazing module 1.57kWh, respectively 1.81kWh laminated modules. In particular, the power efficiency of triple-glazing BIPV module was lower than the power efficiency of the laminated BIPV module. This phenomenon is considered to be affected by the module temperature. In the future, BIPV modules in this study the relationship between module temperature and power characteristics plans to identify.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.45-48
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• 2009

This study evaluated the influence of temperature on the PV module surface on power output characteristics, especially for an amorphous transparent thin-film PV module which was applied to a full-scale mock-up model as building integrated photovoltaic system. The tested mock-up consisted of various slopes of PV module, facing to the south. The annual average temperature of the module installed with the slope of $30^{\circ}$ revealed $43.1^{\circ}C$, resulting in $7^{\circ}C$ higher than that measured in PV modules with the slope of $0^{\circ}$and $90^{\circ}$ did. This $30^{\circ}$ inclined PV module also showed the highest power output of 28.5W (measured at 2 PM) than other two modules having the power output of 20.4W and 14.9W in the same time for $0^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$ in the slope, respectively. In case of the $30^{\circ}$ inclined PV module, it exhibited very uniform distribution of power output generation even under the higher temperature on the module surface. Consequently, the surface temperature of the PV module analyzed in this study resulted in 0.22% reduction in power output in every $1^{\circ}C$ increase of the module surface temperature.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2011

New photovoltaic (PV) materials and manufacturing approaches are needed for meeting the demand for lower-cost solar cells. The prototypal thin-film photovoltaic absorbers (CdTe and $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$) can achieve solar conversion efficiencies of up to 20% and are now commercially available, but the presence of toxic (Cd,Se) and expensive elemental components (In, Te) is a real issue as the demand for photovoltaics rapidly increases. To overcome these limitations, there has been substantial interest in developing viable alternative materials, such as $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) is an emerging solar absorber that is structurally similar to CIGS, but contains only earth abundant, non-toxic elements and has a near optimal direct band gap energy of 1.4~1.6 ev and a large absorption coefficient of ${\sim}10^4\;cm^{-1}$. The CZTS absorber layers are grown and investigated by various fabrication methods, such as thermal evaporation, e-beam evaporation with a post sulfurization, sputtering, non-vacuum sol-gel, pulsed laser, spray-pyrolysis method and electrodeposition technique. In the present work, we report an alternative method for large area deposition of CZTS thin films that is potentially high throughput and inexpensive when used to produce monolithically integrated solar panel modules. Specifically, we have developed an aqueous chemical approach based on chemical bath deposition (CBD) with a subsequent sulfurization heat treatment. Samples produced by our method were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, absorbance and photoluminescence. The results show that this inexpensive and relatively benign process produces thin films of CZTS exhibiting uniform composition, kesterite crystal structure, and good optical properties. A preliminary solar cell device was fabricated to demonstrate rectifying and photovoltaic behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2018

Solar panels are modules made up of many cells, like the N-type monosilicon, P-type monosilicon, P-type multisilicon, amorphous thin-film silicon, and CIGS solar cells. An efficient photovoltaic (PV) power is important to use to determine what kind of cell types are used because residential solar systems receive attention. In this study, we used 3-type solar panels - such as N-type monosilicon, P-type monosilicon, and CIGS solar cells - to investigate what kind of solar panel on a house or building performs the best. PV systems were composed of 3-type solar panels on the roof with each ~1.8 kW nominal power. N-type monosilicon solar panel resulted in the best power generation when monitored. Capacity Utilization Factor (CUF) and Performance Ratio (PR) of the N-type Si solar panel were 14.6% and 75% respectively. In comparison, N-type monosilicon and CIGS solar panels showed higher performance in power generation than P-type monosilicon solar power with increasing solar irradiance.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.21-26
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• 2008

Solar cells are renewable energy source which is not only environmentally friendly but also economically viable. For that matter, thin film materials are in observed with great in terest by a number of sources throughout the nations. Among these, CdTe (Cadium telluride) and CIS (copper indium diselenide) are the latest commercial products that are gathering attention in the solar cells markets. However there are some downsides to this newly invention. Since the materials are embedded, in the occasion of damage, certain amount of module residue can be released to water or soil. This paper outlines the results of our outdoor leaching experiments on photovoltaic (PV) samples broken into small fragments and been observed for 1 year.