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U.S. Department of Energy

Photovoltaic Module Reliability Workshop 2011

February 16–17, 2011

The Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop was held in Golden, Colorado, on Feb. 16–17, 2011. The objective was to share information to improve PV module reliability because such improvements reduce the cost of solar electricity and give investors confidence in the technology. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Program (Solar Program) sponsored the workshop.

The following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. The entire proceeding of the PV Module Reliability Workshop can be downloaded (ZIP 146 MB).

In addition, a detailed agenda is available.

The presentations are grouped by topic and session:

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Overview Presentations

This following presentations provided attendees with a summary of the workshop and reliability research that is supported by the Solar Program.

  • Welcome, Peter Hacke, PV Module Reliability Workshop Chair, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
  • Workshop National Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV) Welcome, Ryne Raffaelle, NCPV Director, NREL
  • Opening Remarks and Overview of DOE Solar Program, Kevin Lynn, Systems Integration Lead for the DOE Solar Program

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Plenary Session A: Diagnostics of Failed and Degraded Modules

Sarah Kurtz, NREL, and Jim Sites, Colorado State University, chaired this session on PV diagnostics of failed and degraded modules.

* Best in Workshop Award

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Plenary Session B: Methodologies for Performance, Reliability, and Durability Determination—Baby Steps Toward Determination of a 25-Year Warranty

Kenneth Sauer, Yingli Green Energy Americas, and Michael Quintana, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), chaired this session on PV methodologies for performance, reliability, and durability determination.

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Plenary Session C: Upstream Materials, Module Components, and Standards

Kaitlyn VanSant and David Miller, both of NREL, chaired this session on PV upstream materials, module components, and standards.

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Plenary Session D: Customer Experiences with Modules and Balance of Systems

Jennifer Granata, SNL, and Neelkanth G. Dhere, University of Central Florida/FSEC, chaired this session on PV customer experiences with modules and balance of systems.

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Concentrating PV Session

Sarah Kurtz, NREL, Steven Seel, Semprius, Peter Hebert, Spectrolab, Nick Bosco, NREL, Ian Aeby, Emcore Solar Power, and Geoff Kinsey, Amonix, Inc., chaired this session on technology-specific issues related to concentrating PV (CPV).

Discussion summary for CPV sessions:

  • Some cell failure mechanisms can be mitigated (for example, by use of strain relief, by avoiding halogen contamination, and by avoiding location-dependent thermomechanical fatigue). Testing for lifetime prediction will involve thermal and moisture cycling as well as light and electrical bias, although different CPV designs make standardized testing challenging.
  • CPV needs a broad spectrum of standards development to address operation lifetime, not just infant mortality.
  • A consensus decision on test conditions for energy and power ratings of CPV modules is close, but requires fine tuning of spectral and optical correction factors.

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Silicon Session

Dan Doble, Fraunhofer CSE, Dave Degraaff, SunPower Corporation, Govindasamy (Mani), TUV Rheinland PTL, and Michael Köhl, Fraunhofer ISE, chaired this session on technology-specific silicon issues.

Discussion summary of for crystalline silicon sessions:

  • There is now better understanding of how cracks propagate in PV modules and a quantitative understanding of how different cracks affect power.
  • Sodium migration affects PV module durability and a variety of environmental factors affect module leakage current. There remains a need to understand the relationship between indoor stress testing and outdoor degradation for the mechanisms of c-Si module degradation under system bias.
  • Resistive heating in modules does not cause fires, but conductor gaps lead to arcing, which can potentially start fires.

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Thin-Film Session

Ryan Gaston, Dow Chemical Company, and Samuel Graham, Georgia Institute of Technology, chaired this session on technology-specific issues related to thin films.

Discussion summary for thin-film sessions:

  • There is validation of edge-seal performance models for determining thin-film device lifetimes, along with general advancement of models for determining the lifetime of CIGS modules.
  • There is a need for QC tools for vapor barrier films.
  • There are numerous tests for acceleration of failure modes for BIPV applications, but codes and standards need development.
  • There are options to account for module metastability, but further understanding of mechanisms and kinetics of metastability is required.

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Poster Session

Organizations that did not give oral presentations were required to contribute at least one poster to stimulate discussion. Because every organization contributed, a wealth of information was available to participants. The poster session included a wide variety of presentations grouped by the following topics:

General

Concentrating Photovoltaics

Crystalline Silicon

Thin-Film Photovoltaics