Jai Prakash Singh

• PhD, National University of Singapore
• Deputy Director General at National Institute of Solar Energy (An Autonomous Institute of Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India)

We present a new method to characterize bifacial solar cells under standard test conditions (STC). The method considers the bifacial operation of the cell and provides the characteristics for simultaneous front and rear side illumination rather than providing the front and the rear side characteristics separately. The method involves measurements o...

Bifacial solar cells can be encapsulated in modules with either a glass/glass or a glass/backsheet structure. A glass/backsheet structure provides additional module current under standard test conditions (STC), due to the backsheet scattering effects, whereas a glass/glass structure has the potential to generate additional energy under outdoor cond...

Potential-induced degradation (PID) in n-type passivated emitter, rear totally diffused (n-PERT) bifacial crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules with a glass/glass structure is investigated. From front-side measurements, a significant loss in the short-circuit current (I $_{\rm{sc}}$ ) and a relatively smaller loss in the open-circuit voltage (V...

This work presents a worldwide analysis on the yield potential and cost effectiveness of photovoltaic farms composed of monofacial fixed-tilt and single/dual (1T/2T) tracker installations, as well as their bifacial counterparts. Our approach starts by estimating the irradiance reaching both the front and rear surfaces of the modules for the differe...

As Bifacial Module technology is growing very rapidly, therefore per- formance analysis of bifacial PV modules in different climatic zones of India is an important topic of study. In this work, the optimum fixed tilt for South-Facing Bifacial module has been estimated for 100 cities of different climatic zones. The optimum tilt varies from 23° in A...

Generally, the lifetime of the PV modules as declared by the manufacturer are around 20–25 years. People are thinking about the use of PV modules after its lifetime declared by the manufacturer. In this study the reliability and performance analysis of mono-crystalline silicon PV modules after its lifetime (declared by manufacturer datasheet) has b...

In this research work, the performance analysis of Light Electric Vehicle powered by solar PV is performed. The impact of an additional PV module on the rooftop of LEV is highlighted by differentiating the power consumption with and without PV modules. It has been observed that the irradiation exposed on the LEV while it is running is significantly...

The shingled module has become an attractive interconnection architecture for its higher packing density and superior power generation. However, with longer string lengths and smaller cell areas, these modules are particularly susceptible to developing hotspots from shading elements. In this paper, a framework for the design of hotspot‐ and shading...

In the modeling of PV modules under shading and low illumination, a complete description of reverse bias behavior at the cell level is critical to understanding module response. This is particularly important when dealing with high voltage configurations such as tandem and shingled modules. Current simulation studies often do not account for the ef...

The effect of solar cell capacitance in the electrical characterization of photovoltaic (PV) modules at Standard Test Conditions (STC) is known since the 1990s. With the efficiency of solar modules increasing in the years, the corresponding measurement artefact has been generally resolved with long pulse simulators, from few milliseconds in the 200...

The shingled architecture has gained attention in recent years for its improved packing density and reduced ohmic losses that have led to greater module efficiencies. In the photovoltaics industry where land and auxiliary costs scale with area utilization, shingling is a promising emergent technology. However, because current designs use smaller ce...

The IEC TS 60904-1-2 was published to standardize the indoor and outdoor electrical characterization of bifacial photovoltaic (PV) devices. In our previous work, we analyzed the requirements stipulated in the technical specification to limit the unwanted irradiance for single light source characterization, via evaluating two back panel materials of...

In this article, electroluminescence (EL) imaging is applied to characterize monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules under indoor and outdoor conditions. EL images of PV modules are analyzed to extract dark saturation current density and series resistance for individual cells within the module. These individual solar cells’ parameters tog...

Digital ceramic printing on glass is explored as a solution to “camouflage” crystalline silicon-based solar cells in order to improve the visual appearance of c-Si PV modules for building-integrated photovoltaics; however, printing on the front glass reduces the light transmittance and, thus, affects the module performance. By combining experiments...

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) published a technical specification, TS60904-1-2 in 2019 to standardize both indoor and outdoor characterisation ofbifacial PV cells and modules. The indoor electrical characterisation can be performed with a single or double light source. Given the linear relationship between irradiance and short...

A fast and non-destructive method based on electroluminescence (EL) imaging is presented to extract the front side resistive loss for individual cells within a crystalline silicon photovoltaic module. As the local luminescence intensity of a solar cell is an exponential function of local voltage, the voltage distribution along individual ribbons wi...

Rooftop and building-integrated distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems are emerging as key technologies for smart building applications. This paper presents the design methodology, mathematical analysis, simulation study, and experimental validation of a digital twin approach for fault diagnosis. We develop a digital twin that estimates the measurab...

Distributed and decentralized power electronics-based rooftop and building integrated photovoltaic (PV) systems are vulnerable to a variety of faults which are difficult to scan and rectify manually. This paper presents the design, analysis, and experimental validation of online fault remediation strategies in those PV systems. The remediation anal...

Bifacial photovoltaic (PV) technology has received considerable attention in recent years due to the potential to achieve higher annual energy yield compared to its monofacial counterpart. Higher annual energy yield is a crucial factor (even more than to further reduce the module costs) because, with the use of highest power PV modules, the high BO...

Correction for ‘A review of crystalline silicon bifacial photovoltaic performance characterisation and simulation’ by Tian Shen Liang et al. , Energy Environ. Sci. , 2019, DOI: 10.1039/c8ee02184h.

The present work studies the features of photovoltaic systems (PV) formed either by monofacial or bifacial crystalline p-type Si-based solar modules. To determine which module technology would be more favorable worldwide, a total of 55 locations around the globe are analyzed considering their weather profiles, market situation, and module electrica...

This paper proposes a new optimization approach for the metallization design of solar cells and modules. While previous works have only optimized a maximum of two parameters at a time (which might lead to the loss of the optimal solution), we developed a graphic user interface tool in MATLAB called Photovoltaic Grid Optimizer (PV‐GO) which is able...

This paper proposes a mounting structure with low-reflective backside panel to reduce the irradiance on the non-illuminated side of the bifacial PV module below 3 W/m 2 , as required by draft standard IEC TS 60904-1-2. The paper also demonstrates a method to quantify the irradiance on the non-illuminated side and construct a 2-D irradiance map. The...

In contrast to monofacial cells, bifacial solar cells are able to harvest sunlight from both front and rear side. Bifacial cells can be encapsulated into different module structures: glass/glass, glass/transparent backsheet or glass/backsheet. Under real-world conditions, a glass/glass or glass/transparent backsheet bifacial PV module produces high...

Reducing levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is important for solar photovoltaics to compete against other energy sources. Thus, the focus should not only be on improving the solar cell efficiency, but also on continuously reducing the losses (or achieving gain) in the cell-to-module process. This can be achieved by choosing the appropriate module...

Bifacial cells are conventionally measured using gold-plated chuck, which is conductive and reflective. This measurement setup does not portray the actual operating conditions of the bifacial cells in a module. The reflective chuck causes an overestimation of the current due to the cell transmittance for the infrared light. The conductive chuck cre...

A temperature correction methodology for in-situ darkI-V(DIV) characterization of conventional p-type crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules undergoing potential-induced degradation (PID) is proposed. We observe that the DIV-derived module power temperature coefficient (γ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http:...

In a c-Si wafer based photovoltaic (PV) module, the current generated in each solar cell must flow to the ribbons soldered onto its front and rear surfaces. Conventionally, a simplified current flow pattern is assumed in calculating the resistive power losses in the cell plane and the ribbons. However, it is found in this work that this approach le...

We are always hearing about champion cells demonstrating efficiencies of 24% or higher, yet only 20 or 21% can be obtained at the module level. Where are all these hard-earned electrons going? Moreover, why should every photon and electron be counted? Cell efficiency is important, but it is module efficiency that defines the bottom line of every so...

Potential-induced degradation (PID) has received considerable attention in recent years due to its detrimental impact on photovoltaic (PV) module performance under field conditions. Both crystalline silicon (c-Si) and thin-film PV modules are susceptible to PID. While extensive studies have already been conducted in this area, the understanding of...

We present a method to characterize bifacial photovoltaic (PV) modules for simultaneous front and rear side illumination (i.e., bifacial illumination). The method uses standard monofacial (i.e., single-sided) indoor current–voltage measurements on the front and rear sides of the bifacial module, while covering the other side with a non-reflecting b...

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are rated under standard test conditions with normally incident light, whereas under outdoor conditions photons arrive on a PV module surface at all angles. In this study, the angular losses of PV modules with a planar and textured front glass are investigated for the tropical conditions of Singapore. Angular reflectance f...

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are rated under standard test conditions with normally incident light, whereas under outdoor conditions photons arrive on a PV module surface at all angles. In this study, the angular losses of PV modules with planar and textured front glass are investigated for the tropical conditions of Singapore. Angular reflectance for...

In a silicon wafer-based photovoltaic (PV) module, significant power is lost due to current transport through the ribbons interconnecting neighbour cells. Using halved cells in PV modules is an effective method to reduce the resistive power loss which has already been applied by some major PV manufacturers (Mitsubishi, BP Solar) in their commercial...

Bifacial photovoltaic modules can convert solar energy to electrical energy from both sides of the module. This means that light reflecting off the rooftop and hitting the rear side of the module can also be converted. Tropical climates such as Singapore have plenty of sunlight to produce power from photovoltaics, with diffuse content of more than...