Correlation of Advanced Accelerated Stress Testing with Polyamide-Based Photovoltaic Backsheet Field-Failures
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- SLAC National Accerator Laboratory
- Sandia National Laboratories
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Cracking of polyamide (PA)-based photovoltaic (PV) backsheet materials has been widely reported for field-aged modules. Failure was not detected by conventional accelerated stress tests (ASTs), which lacked the necessary combination of stress factors and/or factor sequences. PA-based AAA backsheet cracking has since been reproduced through combined and sequential stress testing. Planar- and cross-sectional-optical microscopy as well as Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), have been used to elucidate the mechanical and chemical changes which lead to failure of the backsheet. Field-aged backsheet samples demonstrating failure in various climates (including locations in China and Italy) are also analyzed. Through the analysis, a comparison is made between the different stress testing protocols and the field-aged samples to validate relevance of the advanced stress tests. It is shown that the changes induced through combined-accelerated stress testing (C-AST) were most representative of changes induced by the field, supporting the relevance of C-AST and providing validity for the test protocol.
- 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:
- 1603906
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5K00-74174
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Towards validation of combined-accelerated stress testing through failure analysis of polyamide-based photovoltaic backsheets
Journal Article
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Wed Jan 20 19:00:00 EST 2021
· Scientific Reports
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OSTI ID:1761527