An equivalent circuit model consisting of parallel connected diodes with different electronic quality simulates the electronic properties of solar cells with spatially inhomogeneous material quality. Variations of the local saturation current density result in it degradation of the open circuit voltage, the fill factor and, in consequence, of the overall power conversion efficiency, However. it local series resistance introduced into this network limits this degradation by preventing areas with high saturation Current density to dominate the electronic losses of the entire device. Analyzing the integral current/voltage curves of the networks shows the diode ideality larger than unity to result from spatially inhomogeneous saturation. (C) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.