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Translating Material-Level Characterization of Carbon-Nanotube-Reinforced Composite Gridlines to Module-Level Degradation

Conference ·
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Cell cracks in PV modules caused by poor handling during shipping and installation as well as from extreme weather events can lead to gradual or immediate power degradation. To directly address cell-crack-induced degradation, we have formulated a carbon nanotube additive for commercial screen printed silver pastes. We have shown in previous work that these metal matrix composites have little to no effect on the cell's efficiency while enhancing the metallization's fracture toughness and electrical gap-bridging capability. In this work, we focus on translating materials level characterization techniques to module level degradation. We found that we get conflicting results from two different methods of measuring the metallization's ability to electrically bridge gaps in cracked solar cells. Mini-module stress testing is currently underway to determine which materials characterization correlates well with the min-module degradation characteristics.
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:
1909902
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5K00-85032; MainId:85805; UUID:0cec5896-f0e7-4cdf-855d-b0d7aa5542c4; MainAdminID:68487
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (7)

Fatigue-Like Behavior of Silver Metallization Gridlines and Proposed Damage Mechanics Model conference June 2020
Crack-Tolerant Metal Composites as Photovoltaic Gridlines journal November 2019
Development of Low-Cost, Crack-Tolerant Metallization Using Screen Printing conference June 2019
Silver–Carbon-Nanotube Metal Matrix Composites for Metal Contacts on Space Photovoltaic Cells journal January 2016
Development of Low-Cost, Crack-Tolerant Metallization for Solar Cells
  • Abudayyeh, Omar K.; Nelson, Cayla; Chavez, Andre
  • 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC) (A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC & 34th EU PVSEC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2018.8547386
conference June 2018
Electromechanical Characterization of Crack-Tolerant, Carbon-Nanotube-Reinforced Composite Gridlines Using In Situ Scanning Electron Microscope Strain Test conference June 2020
Silver-carbon-nanotube composite metallization for increased durability of silicon solar cells against cell cracks journal June 2021

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Related Subjects

SOLAR ENERGY
carbon nanotubes
cell cracks
degradation
metallization
nanocomposites
photovoltaics
resilience
silver