Accelerated Aging Testing and Reliability in Photovoltaics Workshop
April 1-2, 2008
The objective of this workshop was to update the PV industry's needs, priorities, and recommendations on accelerated aging testing and to more explicitly discuss reliability issues. Discussions with industry by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and National Laboratory staff led to the decision to schedule a follow up to the 2006 meeting and to expand the scope of the meeting to include reliability. Proceedings from the February 2006 meeting are also available. (PDF 3.8 MB) Download Adobe Reader.
The following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
Workshop II Summary Report (PDF 16.6 MB)
Welcome and Overview of DOE Program (PDF 343 KB)
Dan Ton, U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Program, Building/Grid Integration Team Lead
Reliability Vision and Program (PDF 1.1 MB)
Michael Quintana, Member Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories
Large-Scale Systems Integrator — Reliability Needs (PDF 950 KB)
Laks Sampath, Executive Director of Technology, SPG Solar Inc.
Perspectives on Thin Film PV Reliability and Initial Product Introduction (PDF 593 KB)
Kurt L. Barth, VP Product Development and Co-Founder, AVA Solar
CPV Reliability — Reliability in an Expanding Technology (PDF 1.7 MB)
Robert McConnell, Director of Government Affairs and Contracts, Amonix, Inc.
Modules: Remaining Reliability Challenges (PDF 131 KB)
Akira Terao, Principal Reliability Engineer, SunPower
PV Safety Issues: Key to a Reliable, Viable Industry (PDF 310 KB)
Tim Townsend, Sr. Mechanical Engineer, PE, BEW Engineering
Initial Reliability Considerations for Design of Commercial PV Systems
Mike Fife, Director of Reliability, PV Powered
System Availability: A Must for Profitable Large-Scale Systems (PDF 225 KB)
Steve Voss, Director of Applied Engineering, SunEdison
Progress Since First Workshop: What's New and What's Needed (PDF 1.2 MB)
Tom McMahon, Technical Staff Member, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Best Practice for Achieving High Reliability with PV Systems (PDF 275 KB)
Carl Carlson, Reliability Consultant
Field Observations and Product Returns — What Can We Learn? (PDF 132 KB)
John Wohlgemuth, Senior Scientist, BP Solar International
Reliability Handout prepared by Tom McMahon for Breakout Groups. (PDF 133 KB)