RELIABILITY OF PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES .2. INTERCONNECTION AND BYPASS DIODES EFFECTS

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of interconnection and bypass diodes on improving the reliability of a photovoltaic module. The study of module design has been carried out for different cell interconnections from simple series to a more complex series-parallel configuration aiming to do an evaluation and analysis to determine the optimum item configuration which achieves a reliable module of more than 90%. Bypass diodes are often required to limit the potential of a reverse voltage ''HOT SPOT''. The role of bypass diodes for module reliability improvements has been studied practically. From the results obtained, it is found that the reliability increases as the number of diodes increases. Many experiments to study the effects of interconnections on reliability have been carried out. Results from tests on many modules are presented and discussed.