Abstract
Potential-induced degradation (PID) of photovoltaic (PV) modules is one of the most severe types of degradation in modern modules, where power losses depend on the strength of the electric field, the temperature and relative humidity, and the PV module materials. Previous studies have only considered single effects of PID; however, this work investigates the power losses, development of hotspots, mm-level defects, and the performance ratio (PR) of 28 PID affected PV modules. Following a standard PID experiment, it was found that (i) the average power loss is 25%, (ii) hotspots were developed in the modules with an increase in the surface temperature from 25 to 45 °C, (iii) 60% of the examined PV modules failed the reliability test following IEC61215 standard, and (iv) the mean PR ratio is equivalent to 71.16%.
Highlights
One of the most valuable characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) technology is its high stability, with potential operational lifetimes of over 30 years
PV modules have long been considered reliable under field conditions with low degradation and failure rates, they can be affected by diverse degradation mechanisms, which collectively reduce the module crop power over time
The PID tests were performed on the 28 tested PV modules
Summary
One of the most valuable characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) technology is its high stability, with potential operational lifetimes of over 30 years. In recent studies[1,6], PV modules with different types of structure (poly/monocrystalline silicon) were subjected to PID experiments under the IEC61215 standard[7] They explain that there are 8–30% power losses under standard test conditions. They do not consider the impact of varying the solar irradiance, temperature or analyzing the thermal behaviour in the PID tested PV modules. Other PV failure modes, including failure in the bypass diodes[12], permanent shading[13], or shunting (increase in the resistance of the cells)[14], have been identified as likely to accelerate PID. The analysis will include the output power losses under varying solar irradiance, thermal behaviour and hotspots development, mm-level inspection, and the performance ratio of the PV modules over 12-months of field service. Following the IEC61215 standard, we will discuss the reliability test for all examined modules
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