Solar cells aging estimation based on impedance characterization

Solar energy generation has been a mainstay in space applications such as the International Space Station and military and commercial satellites. More recently, solar power has gained a lot of momentum for terrestrial commercial and residential applications as a viable alternative source of energy. In the current work, a low cost impedance measurement system was implemented to measure the complex impedance of solar cells. Some of the cells were then thermally aged, and the impedance changes from baseline were observed. It was noticed that the phase of the complex impedance signal (or alternatively, the imaginary part of the impedance) was different for a few of the cells subjected to aging. 1, 2