Effect of Backsheet Properties on PV Encapsulant Degradation during Combined Accelerated Aging Tests

Djamel Eddine Mansour, Chiara Barretta, Luciana Pitta Bauermann, Gernot Oreski, Andreas Schueler, Daniel Philipp and Paul Gebhardt
Additional contact information
Djamel Eddine Mansour: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Chiara Barretta: Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, AT-8700 Leoben, Austria
Luciana Pitta Bauermann: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Gernot Oreski: Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, AT-8700 Leoben, Austria
Andreas Schueler: EPFL VPRHO DSPS COSEC-ENAC, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Daniel Philipp: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Paul Gebhardt: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: Long-term photovoltaic (PV) module reliability is highly determined by the durability of the polymeric components (backsheet and encapsulation materials). This paper presents the result of experiments on encapsulant degradation influenced by the backsheet permeation properties. Towards this goal, one type of ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) was aged in glass/EVA/backsheet laminates in accelerated aging tests (up to 4000 h for Damp-Heat (DH) and up to 480 kWh/m 2 for UV and UV-DH combined). The samples contained three backsheets with different permeation properties to examine their impact on EVA degradation. Thermal and chemical characterization shows that the EVA degradation is stronger with the glass–EVA–polyamide (PA)-based backsheet than with the polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-based backsheets. The higher oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of the PA-based backsheet may increase photo-oxidation and aggravating the degradation of EVA in the laminates. Furthermore, FTIR results were used to demonstrate the effect of damp heat exposure on the EVA interfaces, showing an accelerated degradation at the glass–EVA interface. The comparison of accelerated aging stress factors reveals that EVA suffers the strongest chemical and optical degradation when high UV, high temperature and high relative humidity are combined simultaneously.

Keywords: encapsulant; backsheet; degradation; accelerated aging; damp-heat; ultraviolet (UV), UV-DH combined; material combination; photovoltaic (PV) module (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:5208-:d:376585

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