Defining Performance Factors to Design Non-Planar Photovoltaic Interconnection Scheme

Abstract

Solar photovoltaics (PV) are on the forefront of the renewable energy trend in the US mainly due to its accessibility and affordability. The technology continues to grow and develop new and practical applications. The development of the third- generation thin-film materials have increase the robustness of the material allowing it to bend without irreparable damage, making PV conformed to a curvature a possibility. Conventional modeling methods and evaluation techniques are unable to account for the complexities introduced by a curve. This work begins to develop factors to index performance of curved PV to minimize the impact self-shading inherent to the geometry. The two performance factors provided insight into how to minimize the current variance associated with self-shading and gives quantifiable performance data with respect to interconnections to better make application specific design decisions.