An Investigation on the Reliability and Degradation of Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cells Under Accelerated Corrosion Test

Abstract

Using the reliability accelerated tests in the early stage of solar cells life cycle, by using an high level of stress, in order to highlight the one or more degradation factors, on which could be quickly acquired a series of the experimental data, leads to point out the design errors of solar cells and to predictive assessment of reliability indicators. Environmental factors influence the lifetime of a solar cell. The action of each factors determines its aging and finally its degradation as the result of the combined action of sunlight, emissions, climate change, temperature and humidity, the action of dust, the saturated air from the proximity of oceans and seas, whose actions a solar cell undergoes during normal operation. In this paper has been analysed 10 polycrystalline solar cells subjected to accelerated corrosion tests. It has been also carried out two analyses, the first a quantitative analysis by determining the values of reliability indicators and the second one was a qualitative analysis of the degradation of polycrystalline solar cells using the optical microscope.