Solutions to Chapter 6:

Exercise 6.1: Short Circuit Current and Open Circuit Voltage for a Variation of the Irradiance
VOC_Module 43.2 V
a) nCells ≈ = = 72 cells
VOC_Cell_typical 0.6 V

E′ 500
b) ′ ≈
I SC ⋅ I SC = ⋅ 10 A = 5 A
E 1000

I SC
c) With Equation (4.16): VOC = nCells ⋅ m ⋅ VT ⋅ ln
IS
I′ I E′
′ = nCells ⋅ m ⋅ VT ⋅ ln SC = nCells ⋅ m ⋅ VT ⋅ ln SC ⋅
⇒ VOC
IS IS E
I SC E′ E′
′ = nCells ⋅ m ⋅ VT ⋅ ln
⇒ VOC + nCells ⋅ m ⋅ VT ⋅ ln = VOC + nCells ⋅ m ⋅ VT ⋅ ln
IS E E
′ = 43.2 V + 72 ⋅ 1.5 ⋅ 26 mV ⋅ ln(0.5) = 43.2 V − 1.9 V = 41.3 V
⇒ VOC

Exercise 6.2: Series Connection of Modules

a) 1. Prevention of overheating of shaded cells (hotspots)
2. Securing that in case of shading of a module not the whole string turns out
b) Characteristic curves:

I in A
10 module A
9
8
7
6
5 module B
4
3
2
1
0 V in Volt
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

I in A
10
with bypass diodes
9
8
0.7 V voltage difference
7 without through bypass diode
6 bypass diodes
5
4
3
2
1
0 V in Volt
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

K. Mertens Textbook PV Solutions to Exercises

Exercise 6.3: NOCT
a) Nominal Operating Cell Temperature.
This is the cell temperature which sets up under the following conditions:
E = 800 W/m2; ϑA = 20 °C; vWind = 1 m/s.
b) Given: PSTC =102.5 Wp, NOCT = 45 °C.
E 900
With Equation (6.8): ϑCell = ϑA + ( NOCT − 20 °C) ⋅ = 30 °C + (45 °C − 20 °C) ⋅
E NOCT 800
⇒ ϑCell = 30 °C+(25 K)×1.125 = 58.125 °C

900
] 102.5 W ⋅ [1 − 0.29 %/K ⋅ (58.125 °C − 25 °C)] ⋅
P=′ PSTC ⋅ [1 + TCP ⋅ (ϑ − ϑSTC )= = 83.39 W
1000

Exercise 6.4: Mismatching

a) Mismatching means „wrongly put together“. This always arises when modules of different voltages are
connected in parallel of modules of different currents are connected in series. The total power of the
solar generator then is always smaller than the sum of the single module powers:
b) See figures 6.20 and 6.21 and accompanying text.

K. Mertens Textbook PV Solutions to Exercises