Investigation of Correlation between Field Performance and Indoor Acceleration Measurements of Potential Induced Degradation (PID) for c-Si PV Modules

Conference · Fri Sep 29 04:00:00 EDT 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.4229/EUPVSEC20172017-5CO.6.2· OSTI ID:1544990

Chen, Yifeng ^[1]; VanSant, Kaitlyn ^[2]; Khoo, Yong Sheng ^[3]; Wang, Zigang ^[1]; Luo, Wei ^[4]; Deline, Christopher A ^[4]; Hacke, Peter L ^[4]; Chai, Jing ^[3]; Yin, Li ^[1]; Wang, Yan ^[3]; Aberle, Armin G. ^[3]; Yang, Yang ^[1]; Altermatt, Pietro ^[1]; Feng, Zhiqiang ^[1]; Kurtz, Sarah ^[4]; Verlinden, Pierre J. ^[1]

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1. Trina Solar
2. Colorado School of Mines
3. Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS)
4. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

The correlation between outdoor field testing and indoor chamber measurement for potential-induced degradation in crystalline silicon PV modules is unclear. The motivation of this work is to build up a direct comparison and investigate the correlation between indoor and outdoor performance. First of all, four PID indoor tests were defined from basic to premium, based on the difficulty of the test. Six groups of modules were designed and fabricated in Trina Solar, with different grades of PID resistance from weak to strong. The outdoor field test systems were built in three different climates: tropical, subtropical, and semi-arid climates in Singapore, Changzhou (China) and Golden (CO, USA) respectively, in a collaborative testing campaign involving Trina, SERIS and NREL. The system in Golden has been on-sun for more than 13 months where <4% power loss which includes PID and other reliability losses was detected and power loss of <2% is shown for all six groups of modules after 21 weeks in the field in the subtropical climate in Changzhou. However, PID of 23% was observed after 18 weeks in Singapore for the most PID-susceptible module, while the other PID module types showed degradation of only less than 5%.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1544990
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5K00-70228
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
chamber tests
crystalline silicon
field testing
module
potential induced degradation