Photovoltaic half panels are a new technology already used in mass production. A 156x78 \( mm^{2} \) half-cell is created by dividing a traditional 156x156 \( mm^{2} \) cell in half. A half panel is constructed from twice the number of half links connected in chains that are connected in parallel.
Splitting a cell in half halves the current produced by a single cell, while maintaining the same voltage. It also reduces the loss of resistance inside the cell, and thus does not increase the operating temperature of the cell. This slightly increases the power generated by the panel.
There are 120 half cells in the panel, which are connected by 3 bypass diodes, dividing the panel into 6 parts of 20 cells each, working separately ( Fig. 1 ).
Standard panels with 60 cells also have 3 bypass diodes, which also cover 20 cells each ( Fig. 1 ), but they divide such a panel into 3 parts.
The bypass diodes are connected in the negative direction and when the cell(s) is/are not working (e.g., due to shading) they allow current to flow bypassing the non-working cell(s).
This means that when in a standard panel one cell is shaded, the bypass diode will switch off 1/3 of the panel, whereas in a panel with half cells only 1/6 of the panel will be switched off, which for obvious reasons has a positive effect on the power produced by the panel.

The panel operation with one half-cell off is shown in the image below.

Panel operation with one cell off in the standard and half panel is shown in Fig. 2.

As can be seen from Fig. 2, the amount of energy produced by the half-cell panels under unfavorable shading conditions is higher. The losses are minimized by \( 50\% \). An even greater difference will occur when half the panel is shaded. This situation in our conditions can happen, e.g. due to snow or on roof or ground installations set at an angle. The standard panel will then be completely excluded from electricity production, while the panel with half cells ( Fig. 3 ) will work with an efficiency of \( 50\% \) of power [1].

Each letter stands for a part of the panel consisting of 20 half-cells. They are connected to each other in series and parallel and additionally through bypass diodes. This allows the panel to work efficiently. A photovoltaic panel made of half cells has lower power losses compared to a standard panel. The power lost at the internal resistor of one cell is

and multiplied by 60 cells in a standard panel is

The cell loss in the half panel equals

which multiplied by 120 cells yields \( 15\cdot R\cdot I^{2} \), i.e., they are 4 times smaller.

This results in a lower operating temperature of the panel and its higher efficiency [2].