An Investigation on the Reliability and Degradation of Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cells Under Accelerated Corrosion Test

Abstract

Using the reliability accelerated tests in the early stage of solar cells life cycle, by using an high level of stress, in order to highlight the one or more degradation factors, on which could be quickly acquired a series of the experimental data, leads to point out the design errors of solar cells and to predictive assessment of reliability indicators. Environmental factors influence the lifetime of a solar cell. The action of each factors determines its aging and finally its degradation as the result of the combined action of sunlight, emissions, climate change, temperature and humidity, the action of dust, the saturated air from the proximity of oceans and seas, whose actions a solar cell undergoes during normal operation. In this paper has been analysed 10 polycrystalline solar cells subjected to accelerated corrosion tests. It has been also carried out two analyses, the first a quantitative analysis by determining the values of reliability indicators and the second one was a qualitative analysis of the degradation of polycrystalline solar cells using the optical microscope.

Offshore floating photovoltaics system assessment in worldwide perspective

“…For example, a report by Zaharia and co‐authors has been able to quantify the decomposition of solar panels as a consequence of corrosion caused by salinity in (e.g.) seawater 55 . Over the course of several years, it is likely that the contact between offshore solar panels and seawater would lead the offshore solar panels to degrade more rapidly than land‐based PV panels; this, in addition to the infrastructure investment required to deploy PV panels offshore will influence any possible decision to deploy PV panels offshore.…”

“…seawater. 55 Over the course of several years, it is likely that the contact between offshore solar panels and seawater would lead the offshore solar panels to degrade more rapidly than land-based PV panels; this, in addition to the infrastructure investment required to deploy PV panels offshore will influence any possible decision to deploy PV panels offshore. This again, however, is outside of the scope of our paper as we are specifically interested in determining the extent to which geography and meteorology will shape the decision to build offshore solar PV at a specific location.…”

“…That is the reason we also neglect the salinity effect. The humid environment, as well as the above‐mentioned parameters, could affect the speed of aging on the FPV system as discussed in detail in Zaharia et al 28 Nonetheless, in this study, we assume that aging has a similar impact on all FPV systems in all locations which is the reason it does not have an effect on the performance difference between LBPV and FPV for each location.…”

Discussion on the development of offshore floating photovoltaic plants, emphasizing marine environmental protection

“…Suzuki et al (Suzuki et al, 2015) reported that the combined exposure of salt spray followed by high voltage can easily lead to the degradation of generated power of PV modules, possibly due to sodium ions penetrating the encapsulation of the modules. The corrosion caused by salt spray also has a negative impact on the silicone adhesives that seal the edges of the modules (Zaharia et al, 2017). In addition, because floating offshore PV plants can be regarded as artificial reefs, bird activities are very frequent.…”

Efficiency of polycrystalline photovoltaic parks in Romania: Possibility of using renewable energy

“…Solar cells are manufactured as crystalline or thin film. Crystalline type photovoltaic (PV) cells are more efficiency than thin film, but some of the thin film (like cadmium-telluride) is also used, because they have lower cost [6,7].…”