Investigation of Photovoltaic Module Technologies for Module Integration, Performance Losses, Degradation, and Bifacial–Tandem Architectures

Abstract

Photovoltaic module performance is governed by the combined effects of solar-cell architecture, optical packaging, electrical interconnection, irradiance distribution, and reliability. This study develops a comparative module-level framework for PERC, n-TOPCon, heterojunction (HJT), interdigitated-back-contact (IBC), parallel-coupled Si/Si, and III–V/crystalline-silicon configurations. The framework combines experimentally measured solar-cell electrical characteristics and parallel Si/Si performance with a literature-supported assessment of module manufacturing, bifacial operation, qualification, degradation, and diagnostics, together with a quantitative factor-resolved cell-to-module analysis of tandem configurations. At their respective technology-specific maximum-output conditions, the PERC-, TOPCon-, HJT-, and IBC-based parallel Si/Si configurations reached ηtandem values of 28.42%, 31.62%, 32.43%, and 32.29%, respectively, under the adopted effective front-plus-rear irradiance basis. When the complete front-plus-rear incident power was considered, the corresponding ηphysical values were 23.45%, 26.08%, 26.85%, and 26.65%. The ηtandem values represent performance under the adopted rear-side utilization convention and should not be interpreted as complete total-input efficiencies. Factor-resolved CTM analysis yielded module efficiencies of 30.18%, 27.48%, and 31.16% for the III–V Flex/n-TOPCon, GaAs type-1/n-TOPCon, and GaAs type-2/n-TOPCon configurations, corresponding to absolute CTM reductions of 3.56, 3.24, and 3.68 percentage points. The results demonstrate that module performance cannot be inferred from standalone cell efficiency; irradiance normalization, operating-voltage compatibility, optical coupling, inactive area, spectral transmission, and electrical interconnection must be treated consistently.