TY - GEN
T1 - Novel Accelerated UV Testing of Field-Aged Modules
T2 - 7th IEEE World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC 2018
AU - Gopalakrishna, Hamsini
AU - Sinha, Archana
AU - Oh, Jaewon
AU - Dolia, Kshitiz
AU - Tatapudi, Sai
AU - Tamizh Mani, Govinda Samy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/11/26
Y1 - 2018/11/26
N2 - Encapsulant discoloration, a commonly occurring and serious field degradation mode, can be replicated by exposing modules to UV light. Increasing the UV light intensity and the testing temperatures reduces the required testing time. Calculating activation energy using Arrhenius equation for the encapsulant discoloration requires short-circuit current data (or yellowness index data) at multiple temperatures over significant time period. A method of simultaneously obtaining four temperatures in four photovoltaic modules in a single walk-in accelerated UV weathering chamber which drastically reduces the required time and resources is presented. Field-aged modules with visible encapsulant browning were selected for the accelerated testing to determine the wear-out failure mechanisms rather than the early life and midlife failure mechanisms conventionally determined using fresh modules. These modules have been subjected to a very long UV exposure of 450 kWh operating at high temperatures. This work demonstrates that a fast, repeatable, and non-contact UV fluorescence setup can be used in the accelerated testing programs and in powerplants as a standardized technique for an early encapsulant browning detection.
AB - Encapsulant discoloration, a commonly occurring and serious field degradation mode, can be replicated by exposing modules to UV light. Increasing the UV light intensity and the testing temperatures reduces the required testing time. Calculating activation energy using Arrhenius equation for the encapsulant discoloration requires short-circuit current data (or yellowness index data) at multiple temperatures over significant time period. A method of simultaneously obtaining four temperatures in four photovoltaic modules in a single walk-in accelerated UV weathering chamber which drastically reduces the required time and resources is presented. Field-aged modules with visible encapsulant browning were selected for the accelerated testing to determine the wear-out failure mechanisms rather than the early life and midlife failure mechanisms conventionally determined using fresh modules. These modules have been subjected to a very long UV exposure of 450 kWh operating at high temperatures. This work demonstrates that a fast, repeatable, and non-contact UV fluorescence setup can be used in the accelerated testing programs and in powerplants as a standardized technique for an early encapsulant browning detection.
KW - accelerated UV exposure
KW - characterization.
KW - detection
KW - encapsulant browning
KW - multiple module temperatures
KW - ultraviolet fluorescence imaging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059882574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85059882574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2018.8548172
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2018.8548172
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85059882574
T3 - 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC 2018 - A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC and 34th EU PVSEC
SP - 1603
EP - 1608
BT - 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC 2018 - A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC and 34th EU PVSEC
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 10 June 2018 through 15 June 2018
ER -