Burn Marks On Solar Panels

If even a small section of a photovoltaic panel is shaded for example by the branch of a tree there is a very significant drop in power output from the panel.

Burn marks on solar panels. About half of the panels appear to have burn marks of an unknown origin. Just like a car battery solar panel system battery terminals can burn out. Badly soldered connections cause low resistance in the part of the panel that receives the power generated by the cell. This is because a pv solar panel is made up of a string of individual solar cells connected in series with one another.

These have been seen on panels manufactured by smaller suppliers and large distributors alike. You will need to replace all metal parts in the terminal. A burnt terminal can be cause by wiring too many panels to one terminal. As a result the voltage can rise which leads to a hotspot in the soldered points and or a cell.

Typically they are in the same exact place on multiple solar panels. If you work in the solar panel installation business long enough you ll inevitably come across solar panels with strange brown spots. The current output from the whole panel is limited to that passing through the weakest link cell. This is a sign of a burnt terminal.

Hotspots on panels are mainly caused by badly soldered connections or are a result of a structural defect in the solar cells.