Analysis and Comparison of Full and Half-Cut Cell Monofacial and Bifacial PV Modules under Realistic Shading Conditions

Shading is one of the key issues of PV systems and it affects the system performance at various levels depending upon module configuration and orientation, system design, and shading pattern. This paper aims to compare the performance of Full Cell monofacial, Half-Cut Cell monofacial, and Half-Cut Cell bifacial modules under some of the realistic shading scenarios that occur in PV plants using SPICE based modelling of PV modules. Shading of cells also pose a risk of turning “ON” the bypass diodes for extended periods, plausibility and effects of which are discussed in this paper. This paper also illustrates the effects of different values of Albedo on a bifacial PV module and especially on the functionality of bypass diodes. A simple two diode-based SPICE model is proposed for Half-Cut Cell bifacial modules which considers only single (front) side effective irradiance. Using the proposed model, backside shading in bifacial modules is also simulated and its effects on diode current are discussed.