Shunting is one of the major problems in solar cell which degrades cell performance and efficiency. This work aims to investigate the degradation in cell performance caused by the presence of shunts at various locations of industrial mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline silicon solar cells. Location, nature and area of these shunts existing in silicon solar cells have been examined by Lock-in Thermography (LIT). Spatial dependence of shunts has been studied by considering the shunted region of same area at various locations of the cell such as shunt under bus bar, shunt on edge and shunt between bus bars. In each case, degradation in fill factor, efficiency and the total shunt resistance of cell has been estimated by distributed diode model approach based on single diode model of solar cell considering the shunted region of same area and severity.