In-Situ Measurement of Power Loss for Crystalline Silicon Modules Undergoing Thermal Cycling and Mechanical Loading Stress Testing

Sergiu Spataru, Peter Hacke and Dezso Sera
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Sergiu Spataru: Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Peter Hacke: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Dezso Sera: School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane City, QLD 4000, Australia

Energies, 2020, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: An in-situ method is proposed for monitoring and estimating the power degradation of mc-Si photovoltaic (PV) modules undergoing thermo-mechanical degradation tests that primarily manifest through cell cracking, such as mechanical load tests, thermal cycling and humidity freeze tests. The method is based on in-situ measurement of the module’s dark current-voltage (I-V) characteristic curve during the stress test, as well as initial and final module flash testing on a Sun simulator. The method uses superposition of the dark I-V curve with final flash test module short-circuit current to account for shunt and junction recombination losses, as well as series resistance estimation from the in-situ measured dark I-Vs and final flash test measurements. The method is developed based on mc-Si standard modules undergoing several stages of thermo-mechanical stress testing and degradation, for which we investigate the impact of the degradation on the modules light I-V curve parameters, and equivalent solar cell model parameters. Experimental validation of the method on the modules tested shows good agreement between the in-situ estimated power degradation and the flash test measured power loss of the modules, of up to 4.31 % error (RMSE), as the modules experience primarily junction defect recombination and increased series resistance losses. However, the application of the method will be limited for modules experiencing extensive photo-current degradation or delamination, which are not well reflected in the dark I-V characteristic of the PV module.

Keywords: photovoltaic modules; accelerated stress testing; in-situ monitoring; dark I-V curves; thermal cycling; mechanical loading; degradation monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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