Efficiency of the repair of solar cells

[poprox198]

I am a college student performing a design project on the subject of photovoltaic cell repair. The purpose in creating this entry would be to collect data upon the opinions of the members of this forum when it comes to the question of repair. The question I would like to ask is if it is more cost efficient to repair a solar cell, or to replace it. Information on output efficiency and total costs would be appreciated.  

[DamonHD]

It might be helpful to distinguish between repairing/replacing individual cells (within a panel/module) rather than whole panels/modules which would normally be the field-replacable unit IMHO.

I should imagine that many types of panels/modules would not take at all kindly to being opened up.

Rgds

Damon

[electronbaby]

Modules can be "opened up". They need to be uniformly heated to remove the laminant backing and encapsulant. Manufacturers are doing this as we speak on past failed lots of modules and reselling or replacing defective units in the field.

The need for this usually is not too often and modules for the most part are pretty durable. Ground faults, lightning hits, and other electrical failures/shorts dont usually hurt PV modules unless there are many strings back-feeding into a single string. This usually makes the bypass diodes fail.

The single most vulnerable component of pv modules are the bypass diodes. These usually can be replace relatively easily, with the exception of many amorphous pv modules which might have them located on each cell enclosed in the laminant.

hope this helps

[poprox198]

Thank you for your comments. For clarification, my lab partner and I are geared towards repairing physically broken cells, as well as the panel as a whole.

[ghurd]

I have seen a lot of panels that had bad things done to them.

I do not recall a physically broken cell, unless the entire panel was smashed.

I saw a panel that was smashed (no glass left on the front), but still working fine. No cells showed obvious damage.  I doubt it worked very long after.

If one cell was broken in a standard 36 cell module, the most cost efficient solution would be to simply bypass that cell.

I have a gut feeling...

The module output is based on the area of a cell.  If a broken cell is repaired, the surface area would be reduced.  The output would likely go down more than removing the broken cell from the circuit.

It would be an interesting experiment either way.

G-