Irradiance-Dependence of the Current?Voltage Characteristics of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Variations in the current–voltage characteristics Iout(V) of crystalline silicon solar cells under different levels of irradiance (E) are experimentally investigated. It is demonstrated that the Iout(V) can be well approximated by the sum of a dark current and a voltage-dependent "photocurrent," which is proportional to E. Using this result, the Iout(V) at any E can be calculated from those at two different Es with better accuracy than by the conventional procedure based on the shifted approximation.