Pub Date : 2025-09-17DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3608480
Ushnik Chakrabarti;Binoy Kumar Karmakar
Standard protection devices, such as overcurrent protection devices (OCPD) or ground fault protection devices (GFPD), fail to detect faults due to the presence of series blocking diodes in a series–parallel configured solar photovoltaic (PV) array. This is because, the blocking diode limits the fault current below the respective threshold of the OCPD or GFPD fuses. Several techniques are available in the literature, which attempt to overcome the ineffectiveness of the protection devices in the presence of series blocking diodes. However, the common limitation of these techniques are that they fail to distinguish a fault from partial shading conditions. This can lead to false positives affecting productivity. To overcome the shortcomings of the available techniques, this work proposes a string current correlation-based fault detection technique for PV arrays, which is also effective under partial shading conditions. This work also computes a threshold value of the anticorrelation between the string currents that separates faults from partial shading. MATLAB simulations considering various fault types and weather conditions show its effectiveness in detecting faults and separating it from partial shading. A small-scale hardware set-up is also developed to establish the applicability of the proposed technique in a real-world scenario.
{"title":"An Efficient String Current Correlation-Based PV Array Fault Detection Technique","authors":"Ushnik Chakrabarti;Binoy Kumar Karmakar","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3608480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3608480","url":null,"abstract":"Standard protection devices, such as overcurrent protection devices (OCPD) or ground fault protection devices (GFPD), fail to detect faults due to the presence of series blocking diodes in a series–parallel configured solar photovoltaic (PV) array. This is because, the blocking diode limits the fault current below the respective threshold of the OCPD or GFPD fuses. Several techniques are available in the literature, which attempt to overcome the ineffectiveness of the protection devices in the presence of series blocking diodes. However, the common limitation of these techniques are that they fail to distinguish a fault from partial shading conditions. This can lead to false positives affecting productivity. To overcome the shortcomings of the available techniques, this work proposes a string current correlation-based fault detection technique for PV arrays, which is also effective under partial shading conditions. This work also computes a threshold value of the anticorrelation between the string currents that separates faults from partial shading. MATLAB simulations considering various fault types and weather conditions show its effectiveness in detecting faults and separating it from partial shading. A small-scale hardware set-up is also developed to establish the applicability of the proposed technique in a real-world scenario.","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 6","pages":"932-940"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145339705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Screen-printable copper (Cu) paste offers a promising, cost-effective plug-and-play alternative for photovoltaic cell metallization. However, the tendency of Cu diffusion into silicon presents a key challenge in maintaining cell performance. This work reports on the use of Bert Thin Films’ screen-printable Cu paste in combination with a postfabrication laser-enhanced contact optimization (LECO) process to significantly improve the stability and performance of Cu-contacted passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar cells. Ag-free Cu-contacted p-PERC solar cell efficiency of 21.4% was achieved with a low series resistance of 0.7 Ω-cm2 and a fill factor of 79% after the LECO process, which remained essentially stable over 17 days. In addition, LECO-treated cells showed a pseudofill factor (pFF) of 82.4% compared to 80.7% for the untreated cells, indicating that the LECO process not only reduces contact resistance but also mitigates Cu migration toward the junction. The LECO process enables low-temperature firing by restoring the series resistance. Under firing the Cu-contacted screen-printed cells improves the pFF but results in high series resistance and low cell efficiency before the LECO treatment. In contrast, cells without LECO treatment showed an efficiency of 10.7% on day one, which increased to 19.4% after 17 days due to the reduction in series resistance from 9.3 to 1.8 Ω-cm2. This study shows that the synergy between Bert Thin Films’ Cu paste and the LECO treatment significantly narrows the efficiency gap between Cu and Ag-contacted p-PERC cells, paving the way for scalable, high-efficiency, Ag-free solar cells.
{"title":"High Efficiency Screen-Printed Ag-Free PERC Solar Cell With Cu Paste and Laser-Enhanced Contact Optimization","authors":"Ruohan Zhong;Venkata Sai Aditya Mulkaluri;Kevin Elmer;Vijaykumar Upadhyaya;Young Woo Ok;Ruvini Dharmadasa;Erin Yenney;Apolo Nambo;Thad Druffel;Ajeet Rohatgi","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597679","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597679","url":null,"abstract":"Screen-printable copper (Cu) paste offers a promising, cost-effective plug-and-play alternative for photovoltaic cell metallization. However, the tendency of Cu diffusion into silicon presents a key challenge in maintaining cell performance. This work reports on the use of Bert Thin Films’ screen-printable Cu paste in combination with a postfabrication laser-enhanced contact optimization (LECO) process to significantly improve the stability and performance of Cu-contacted passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar cells. Ag-free Cu-contacted p-PERC solar cell efficiency of 21.4% was achieved with a low series resistance of 0.7 Ω-cm<sup>2</sup> and a fill factor of 79% after the LECO process, which remained essentially stable over 17 days. In addition, LECO-treated cells showed a pseudofill factor (pFF) of 82.4% compared to 80.7% for the untreated cells, indicating that the LECO process not only reduces contact resistance but also mitigates Cu migration toward the junction. The LECO process enables low-temperature firing by restoring the series resistance. Under firing the Cu-contacted screen-printed cells improves the pFF but results in high series resistance and low cell efficiency before the LECO treatment. In contrast, cells without LECO treatment showed an efficiency of 10.7% on day one, which increased to 19.4% after 17 days due to the reduction in series resistance from 9.3 to 1.8 Ω-cm<sup>2</sup>. This study shows that the synergy between Bert Thin Films’ Cu paste and the LECO treatment significantly narrows the efficiency gap between Cu and Ag-contacted p-PERC cells, paving the way for scalable, high-efficiency, Ag-free solar cells.","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 6","pages":"984-987"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145341061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-25DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597616
Sebastián Rodríguez-Romero;Jorge Rabanal-Arabach;Christian A. Rojas;Mauricio Trigo-Gonzalez;Gino Mondaca-Cuevas;Diego Arias;Fernando Castro-Gallardo;Edward Fuentealba-Vidal
The integration of vehicle-integrated photovoltaic (ViPV) systems enhances the sustainability of urban public transportation and reduces reliance on the electrical grid. However, irradiance variability and partial shading pose significant challenges to system stability and efficiency. This study evaluates three advanced nonisolated dc–dc converter topologies: interleaved boost, quadratic boost, and multi-input/single-output (MISO) under maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control using the perturb and observe algorithm. Simulations were conducted in Simulink using real irradiance and temperature data collected in a high solar irradiance place, such as Antofagasta, Chile. The system comprises 600 photovoltaic cells ($350, mathrm{V}$) connected to a $540,mathrm{ V}$ dc-Link bus and a $50, text{kWh}$ LiFePO$_{4}$ battery bank. Key performance metrics, such as voltage gain, efficiency, current ripple, and duty cycle behavior, were analyzed under three solar scenarios. Under favorable irradiance, all topologies delivered over $3.2, text{kW}$ with ideal efficiencies above 98.4%. The interleaved topology demonstrated strong steady-state performance but limited transient regulation. The quadratic converter operated with a low duty cycle yet showed greater sensitivity to disturbances. In contrast, the MISO converter consistently maintained a stable output, low ripple, and high efficiency even under minimal irradiance conditions (70 W/m$^{2}$). These results position the MISO topology as the most robust solution for variable urban environments, ensuring reliable energy delivery and supporting the efficient deployment of ViPV systems in electric mobility applications.
{"title":"Analysis of Advanced Nonisolated Topologies for Vehicle-Integrated Photovoltaic (ViPV) Systems in Urban Electric Transport Buses","authors":"Sebastián Rodríguez-Romero;Jorge Rabanal-Arabach;Christian A. Rojas;Mauricio Trigo-Gonzalez;Gino Mondaca-Cuevas;Diego Arias;Fernando Castro-Gallardo;Edward Fuentealba-Vidal","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597616","url":null,"abstract":"The integration of vehicle-integrated photovoltaic (ViPV) systems enhances the sustainability of urban public transportation and reduces reliance on the electrical grid. However, irradiance variability and partial shading pose significant challenges to system stability and efficiency. This study evaluates three advanced nonisolated dc–dc converter topologies: interleaved boost, quadratic boost, and multi-input/single-output (MISO) under maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control using the perturb and observe algorithm. Simulations were conducted in Simulink using real irradiance and temperature data collected in a high solar irradiance place, such as Antofagasta, Chile. The system comprises 600 photovoltaic cells (<inline-formula><tex-math>$350, mathrm{V}$</tex-math></inline-formula>) connected to a <inline-formula><tex-math>$540,mathrm{ V}$</tex-math></inline-formula> dc-Link bus and a <inline-formula><tex-math>$50, text{kWh}$</tex-math></inline-formula> LiFePO<inline-formula><tex-math>$_{4}$</tex-math></inline-formula> battery bank. Key performance metrics, such as voltage gain, efficiency, current ripple, and duty cycle behavior, were analyzed under three solar scenarios. Under favorable irradiance, all topologies delivered over <inline-formula><tex-math>$3.2, text{kW}$</tex-math></inline-formula> with ideal efficiencies above 98.4%. The interleaved topology demonstrated strong steady-state performance but limited transient regulation. The quadratic converter operated with a low duty cycle yet showed greater sensitivity to disturbances. In contrast, the MISO converter consistently maintained a stable output, low ripple, and high efficiency even under minimal irradiance conditions (70 W/m<inline-formula><tex-math>$^{2}$</tex-math></inline-formula>). These results position the MISO topology as the most robust solution for variable urban environments, ensuring reliable energy delivery and supporting the efficient deployment of ViPV systems in electric mobility applications.","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"16 1","pages":"47-53"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145802355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
One of the greatest challenges facing photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems today is maintaining their operation at the desired power generation efficiency. To achieve this goal, the anomaly detection of the output power of PV arrays is crucial for ensuring reliability and safety. This article proposes an anomaly detection for the output power of PV arrays based on temporal Kolmogorov–Arnold networks (TKANs). First, a dataset of PV array parameters is constructed by selecting the time series of output power, ambient temperature, component temperature, and irradiance of the PV array as input features. Second, the PV array parameter dataset undergoes feature normalization by obtaining the boundary values of environmental information and operating parameters, and scaling them to the range of 0–1. Then, the processed dataset is trained using the TKAN neural network to obtain the anomaly detection model of the output power of the PV array. Finally, the proposed method is compared and analyzed with three other methods, such as Isolation Forest, $K$-means, and long short-term memory, verifying its reliability and superiority. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated in a self-built PV power plant.
{"title":"An Anomaly Detection Method for the Output Power of Photovoltaic Arrays Based on TKAN","authors":"Tingting Pei;Lei Jiang;Wei Chen;Haiyan Zhang;Jian Zhang;Lihan Xin","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3596688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3596688","url":null,"abstract":"One of the greatest challenges facing photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems today is maintaining their operation at the desired power generation efficiency. To achieve this goal, the anomaly detection of the output power of PV arrays is crucial for ensuring reliability and safety. This article proposes an anomaly detection for the output power of PV arrays based on temporal Kolmogorov–Arnold networks (TKANs). First, a dataset of PV array parameters is constructed by selecting the time series of output power, ambient temperature, component temperature, and irradiance of the PV array as input features. Second, the PV array parameter dataset undergoes feature normalization by obtaining the boundary values of environmental information and operating parameters, and scaling them to the range of 0–1. Then, the processed dataset is trained using the TKAN neural network to obtain the anomaly detection model of the output power of the PV array. Finally, the proposed method is compared and analyzed with three other methods, such as Isolation Forest, <inline-formula><tex-math>$K$</tex-math></inline-formula>-means, and long short-term memory, verifying its reliability and superiority. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated in a self-built PV power plant.","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 6","pages":"965-976"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145341071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597182
{"title":"Call for Papers for a Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices on “Ultrawide Band Gap Semiconductor Device for RF, Power and Optoelectronic Applications”","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597182","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597182","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 5","pages":"734-735"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11133609","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597184
{"title":"Call for Papers for a Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices on “Reliability of Advanced Nodes”","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597184","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 5","pages":"736-737"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11133596","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597178
{"title":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics Information for Authors","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597178","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 5","pages":"C3-C3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11133598","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597180
{"title":"Call for Papers for a Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices on “Wide Band Semiconductors for Automotive Applications”","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3597180","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 5","pages":"732-733"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11133594","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-08DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3583031
Sophie Pelland;Stefan Riechelmann
Full-resolution spectral irradiance data can comprise upwards of 2000–3000 data points at a single time step. Given that photovoltaic (PV) modeling is regularly performed with subhourly time resolutions over multiyear periods, incorporating spectral effects can become challenging both in terms of file sizes and computational burden. For this reason, spectral irradiances are sometimes aggregated into a limited number of wavelength bands (or wavebands), such as the 32-band grouping known as Kato bands that is used in the IEC 61853 series of standards on “PV module performance testing and energy rating.” To test the impact of such aggregation, measured, and modeled spectral irradiance data from two sites in the United States—Tempe, Arizona and Golden, Colorado—are used to assess the impact on PV spectral effect estimates of aggregating spectral irradiances into Kato bands and into two other sets of wavebands known as PV-bands. Calculations using the aggregated spectra are compared with those using the full-resolution spectra, for crystalline silicon and cadmium telluride modules. Each of the three sets of wavebands yields negligible errors of less than 0.1% in the spectral derate factor, which characterizes long-term spectral effects. This indicates that both Kato bands and PV-bands should be sufficient for the purposes of PV energy rating. Meanwhile, a recent version of PV-bands performs best for evaluating the instantaneous spectral mismatch factor, leading to errors of less than 0.2% across all time steps for both sites and PV module technologies, while instantaneous errors for Kato bands reach magnitudes of up to 1.4%.
{"title":"The Impact of Spectral Irradiance Aggregation Into Kato Bands and PV-Bands on Estimates of Photovoltaic Spectral Effects","authors":"Sophie Pelland;Stefan Riechelmann","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3583031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2025.3583031","url":null,"abstract":"Full-resolution spectral irradiance data can comprise upwards of 2000–3000 data points at a single time step. Given that photovoltaic (PV) modeling is regularly performed with subhourly time resolutions over multiyear periods, incorporating spectral effects can become challenging both in terms of file sizes and computational burden. For this reason, spectral irradiances are sometimes aggregated into a limited number of wavelength bands (or wavebands), such as the 32-band grouping known as Kato bands that is used in the IEC 61853 series of standards on “PV module performance testing and energy rating.” To test the impact of such aggregation, measured, and modeled spectral irradiance data from two sites in the United States—Tempe, Arizona and Golden, Colorado—are used to assess the impact on PV spectral effect estimates of aggregating spectral irradiances into Kato bands and into two other sets of wavebands known as PV-bands. Calculations using the aggregated spectra are compared with those using the full-resolution spectra, for crystalline silicon and cadmium telluride modules. Each of the three sets of wavebands yields negligible errors of less than 0.1% in the spectral derate factor, which characterizes long-term spectral effects. This indicates that both Kato bands and PV-bands should be sufficient for the purposes of PV energy rating. Meanwhile, a recent version of PV-bands performs best for evaluating the instantaneous spectral mismatch factor, leading to errors of less than 0.2% across all time steps for both sites and PV module technologies, while instantaneous errors for Kato bands reach magnitudes of up to 1.4%.","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 5","pages":"657-661"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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