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Figure 1. The equivalent circuit of a solar cell. From Wikipedia's Theory of solar cells.

To understand the electronic behavior of a solar cell, it is useful to create a model which is electrically equivalent, and is based on discrete ideal electrical components whose behavior is well defined. An ideal solar cell may be modelled by a current source in parallel with a diode; in practice no solar cell is ideal, so a shunt resistance and a series resistance component are added to the model. The resulting equivalent circuit of a solar cell is shown on the left. Also shown, on the right, is the schematic representation of a solar cell for use in circuit. [Emphasis mine.]

If the solar cell is behaving as a constant current source then it doesn't matter how many you put in series, you can only get IL from the combination. If, for example, IL = 1 A then two or more panels in series will give 1 A into a short circuit.


If you don't short-circuit the panels and allow them to work at their optimum point - maybe 12 V and 0.5 A, for example then the series connection will give out 24 V @ 0.5 A and the power into the load will be twice the power of one panel. Note that your load resistance will have to be double that of the 12 V load.


From the comments:

If we leave the short circuiting aside and assume a solar panel connected to 10 ohms draws 1 A . And if we connect another panel in series to same 10 ohms would it draw 2 A? Assuming both panels are capable of providing more than 1 A according to load.

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Figure 2. Solar cell I-V curve. Modified from source: Alternative Energy Tutorials.

The I-V (current vs voltage) curve of the solar panel is required to answer this question. Starting at the Open Circuit point on the V-axis we can see from the blue I-V curve that as we increase the current drawn from 0 A the voltage starts to decrease. At the maximum power point the curve is turning almost horizontal and it has gone into current limit and the voltage collapses. The purple P-V curve shows us that maximum power will be obtained at MPP and that is where you try to operate for maximum efficiency.

  • If you were to run your 12 V panel into a 10 Ω load and it happened to be operating at point (3) then if we double the load (half the resistance - which is the same effect as your comment) the current would increase to that at (2) but the voltage would drop to maybe 90%. Your power out would be less than double: it would have gone from \$IV\$ to \$2I \times 0.9 V\$ or 80% extra. Note that you if you were operating at (1) then you were were not operating the panel efficiently.

  • If you were operating at (2) and tried to increase the current the voltage will collapse as shown at (1).

  • Relative to (1) current has doubled but voltage has collapsed to 50%. Now instead of \$ P_2 = VI \$ you have \$ P_1 = \frac {V_2} 2 2I_1 \$ which is the same power you started with.

  • Relative to (2), the optimum, I has gone up about 10% but V has collapsed to < 50%. Now \$ P_1 = 1.1 \times I \times \frac V 2 = 0.55 P_2 \$.

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