How Do CIGS Solar Panels Perform in Low Light and Shade?
CIGS solar panels can generate energy in low light because they don’t require bright sunshine to operate – they generate electricity from available daylight.
Solar panel performance in low light is particularly important for commercial vehicles. Vehicles operate throughout the year and are regularly exposed to cloudy weather, low winter light and changing levels of shade from buildings, trees and other vehicles.
Our CIGS solar technology is particularly well suited to these variable real-world conditions, combining strong low-light performance with a panel design engineered to tolerate partial shading.
Why Does Shading Matter on a Commercial Vehicle?
Unlike a stationary solar installation, a commercial vehicle is constantly moving between different environments.
A vehicle might be in direct daylight one moment and partially shaded by a building, tree or other vehicle the next. Even when parked, the position and extent of shading can change considerably throughout the day.
Panels can also become partially obstructed by dirt, leaves, snow or bird droppings.
How a solar panel responds when only part of its surface is affected can therefore have a significant impact on its real-world performance.
How Do Bypass Diodes Improve Solar Performance?
Solar panels consist of multiple photovoltaic cells connected together. In a conventional panel, shading a relatively small area can affect the output of a much larger section of the panel.
Bypass diodes provide an alternative path for the electrical current, allowing it to bypass groups of shaded or obstructed cells while unaffected sections of the panel continue to generate.
The number and configuration of these bypass diodes therefore matters.
Our high-voltage 50W panel, for example, has 44 cells and 22 bypass diodes – one diode for every two cells. If a pair of cells is shaded or obstructed, the current can bypass those cells while the remaining sections of the panel continue to contribute.
This makes the panel particularly well suited to the constantly changing light and shading conditions experienced in commercial vehicle applications.
Read more on how multiple bypass diodes improve real-world solar panel performance.
Solar Panel Performance in Low Light
Low-light performance isn’t determined by a single feature.
The underlying CIGS photovoltaic technology, panel voltage, bypass diode configuration and charge controller all contribute to how effectively a vehicle solar system can harvest the energy available throughout the day.
That’s why we believe commercial vehicle solar performance should be considered in real-world operating conditions rather than simply comparing headline wattage figures.
