Extended Accelerated Stress Testing (EAST) of Glass/Glass, Glass/Backsheet and Glass/Transparent Backsheet PV Modules: Influence of EVA and POE Encapsulants

Conference · 14 November 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC48317.2022.9938862· OSTI ID:1913955

Kumar, Akash; Pavgi, Ashwini; Hacke, Peter; Choudhury, Kaushik Roy; TamizhMani, GovindaSamy

This paper presents the indoor extended accelerated stress testing (EAST) results of glass/glass (GG), glass/backsheet (GB) and glass/transparent backsheet (GT) modules having identical cells and two different encapsulant types, ethyl-vinyl-acetate (EVA) and polyolefin-elastomer (POE). Six 4-cell modules having the abovementioned construction combinations were subjected to extended ultraviolet (UV; 600 kWh/m2), damp-heat (DH; 2000 hours) and thermal-cycling (TC; 600 cycles) tests. The post-stress UV fluorescent imaging, electroluminescent imaging, reflectance spectrophotometry and colorimetry results indicated that the grid finger degradation and encapsulant browning are slightly higher in the GG modules compared to the GB modules. The post-stress IV test results indicated, in general, that the GG/EVA modules tend to perform inferior to the GG/POE modules with the EAST evaluation.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1913955
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5K00-85051; MainId:85824; UUID:46977ddb-f4a6-42fb-aaea-dc80fe79ee8a; MainAdminID:68500
• Resource Relation: Conference: Presented at the 2022 IEEE 49th Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC), 5-10 June 2022, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Related Information: 83497
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

SOLAR ENERGY
EVA
glass/backsheet
glass/glass
indoor accelerated stress testing
POE
reliability