Modeling defects of PV-cells by means of FEM

Abstract

The paper introduces the issue of the typical defects present in PV-cell. Characteristic defects are introduced and the attention is focused on two specific defects: linear edge shunt and hole. These defects are modeled by means of Finite Element Method (FEM) and implemented in Comsol Multiphysics environment in order to analyze the temperature distribution in the whole defected PV-cell, because abnormal temperatures reduce the PV-cell efficiency. Simulation results are compared with the thermo-grams of real cases and the goodness of the models is confirmed.