Evaluation of Performance Losses and Degradation of Aged Crystalline Si Photovoltaic Modules Installed in Minas Gerais (Brazil)

Diniz, Antônia Sônia Alves Cardoso; Cassini, Denio Alves; Oliveira, Michele Cândida Carvalho de; Lins, Vanessa de Freitas Cunha; Viana, Marcelo Machado; Braga, Daniel Sena; Kazmerski, Lawrence L.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-18488-9_4

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Surprisingly, the insulation resistance of all PV modules met the IEC 61215 standard, even though modules with brown and dark brown discolouration were more vulnerable to failure from corrosion, delamination, and EVA bubble formation. An investigation conducted by Diniz et al [115] also found that modules with brown discolouration were associated with more severe and safety-related failures, including corrosion.…”

Section: Encapsulantmentioning

confidence: 96%

A Review of Photovoltaic Module Failure and Degradation Mechanisms: Causes and Detection Techniques

Al Mahdi,

Leahy,

Alghoul

et al. 2024

Solar

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With the global increase in the deployment of photovoltaic (PV) modules in recent years, the need to explore and understand their reported failure mechanisms has become crucial. Despite PV modules being considered reliable devices, failures and extreme degradations often occur. Some degradations and failures within the normal range may be minor and not cause significant harm. Others may initially be mild but can rapidly deteriorate, leading to catastrophic accidents, particularly in harsh environments. This paper conducts a state-of-the-art literature review to examine PV failures, their types, and their root causes based on the components of PV modules (from protective glass to junction box). It outlines the hazardous consequences arising from PV module failures and describes the potential damage they can bring to the PV system. The literature reveals that each component is susceptible to specific types of failure, with some components deteriorating on their own and others impacting additional PV components, leading to more severe failures. Finally, this review briefly summarises PV failure detection techniques, emphasising the significance of electrical characterisation techniques and underlining the importance of considering more electrical parameters. Most importantly, this review identifies the most prevalent degradation processes, laying the foundation for further investigation by the PV research community through modelling and experimental studies. This allows for early detection by comparing PV performance when failures or degradation occur to prevent serious progression. It is worth noting that most of the studies included in this review primarily focus on detailing failures and degradation observed in PV operations, which can be attributed to various factors, including the manufacturing process and other external influences. Hence, they provide explanations of these failure mechanisms and causes but do not extensively explore corrective actions or propose solutions based on either laboratory experiments or real-world experience. Although, within this field of study, there are corresponding studies that have designed experiments to suggest preventive measures and potential solutions, an in-depth review of those studies is beyond the scope of this paper. However, this paper, in turn, serves as a valuable resource for scholars by confining PV failures to critically evaluate available studies for preventative measures and corrective actions.

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Section: Encapsulantmentioning

confidence: 96%

A Review of Photovoltaic Module Failure and Degradation Mechanisms: Causes and Detection Techniques

Al Mahdi,

Leahy,

Alghoul

et al. 2024

Solar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Surprisingly, the insulation resistance of all PV modules met the IEC 61215 standard, even though modules with brown and dark-brown discolouration were more vulnerable to failure from corrosion, delamination, and EVA bubble formation. An investigation conducted by Diniz et al [110] also found that modules with brown discolouration were associated with more severe and safety-related failures, including corrosion.…”

Section: Encapsulantmentioning

confidence: 96%

A Review of Photovoltaic Failure and Degradation Mechanisms

Al Mahdi,

Leahy,

Alghoul

et al. 2023

Preprint

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With the global increase of photovoltaic (PV) modules deployment in recent years, the need to explore and realize their reported failure mechanisms has become crucial. Despite PV modules being considered reliable devices, failures and extreme degradations often occur. Some degradations and failures can be minor and cause no critical harm if within the expected range. Others, may start mildly and then deteriorate faster to become catastrophic, especially in harsh environments. This paper conducts a state-of-the-art literature review to scan PV failures, types, and their root cause based on PV’s constructed components (from protective glass to junction-box). It outlines the hazardous consequences beyond PV module failures, describing what harm they can bring to the PV system. As we delve into the literature, it becomes clear that every component is vulnerable to certain types of failures; some can deteriorate within themselves, and others infect further PV components resulting in emerging more severe failures. In the end, the review briefly summarises PV failure detection techniques, emphasising electrical characterization techniques, and disclosing the need to engage more electrical parameters. Most importantly, this review can prepare the stage for the PV research community to identify the most prevalent degradation processes. This, in turn, encourages researchers to investigate them throughout modelling and experimental studies to forecast them at the early onset in order to protect the PV systems from hazardous malfunctions.

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“…Meanwhile modules with brown discoloration were more likely to develop corrosion and delamination failures than modules with yellow discoloration, although insulation resistance when measured in all PV modules was compliant with the IEC standard. Corrosion and more hazardous failures were also found in modules with brown discoloration in a Brazilian study by Diniz et al [31]. Therefore, detecting the early onset of EVA degradation avoids possible hazards through preventative maintenance, such as direct replacement of modules exhibiting signs of early degradation, even if the PV modules are compliant with the IEC standard, while also ensuring the PV modules continue to produce maximal power.…”

Section: A Review Of Encapsulant Degradationmentioning

confidence: 98%

Predicting Early EVA Degradation in Photovoltaic Modules From Short Circuit Current Measurements

Mahdi

Morrison

2021

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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One of the common failures in photovoltaic modules is the degradation of the ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant due to prolonged ultraviolet exposure and other environmental stress factors, such as temperature and humidity. Experimental studies have shown that significant reduction in the optical transmission due to EVA degradation leads to loss in the available power by more than 50%. In this article, a novel approach to predict the early degradation of EVA encapsulant is proposed by correlating EVA degradation with short-circuit current (I SC ). An electrical circuit simulator, simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE), is used to evaluate the short-circuit current obtained under varying optical transmission caused by EVA discoloration. The simulation follows three steps: simulation of the transmitted solar spectrum; simulation of the spectral short-circuit current density; and simulation of the current-voltage (I-V) curve to obtain short-circuit current (I SC ), maximum power output (P max ), opencircuit voltage (V OC ) and fill factor. Results show that the reduction in short-circuit current due to EVA degradation differs from the reductions expected due to a spectrally-uniform reduction of intensity of the solar irradiance. Both types of variation are linear, however, the slope due to EVA degradation is larger than the slope obtained for normal intensity variations in the solar irradiance. This model, when applied in conjunction with solar irradiance measurements, can predict early onset of EVA encapsulant failure, thereby enabling preventative measures to be taken.

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Evaluation of Performance Losses and Degradation of Aged Crystalline Si Photovoltaic Modules Installed in Minas Gerais (Brazil)

Cited by 6 publications

References 15 publications

A Review of Photovoltaic Module Failure and Degradation Mechanisms: Causes and Detection Techniques

A Review of Photovoltaic Module Failure and Degradation Mechanisms: Causes and Detection Techniques

A Review of Photovoltaic Failure and Degradation Mechanisms

Predicting Early EVA Degradation in Photovoltaic Modules From Short Circuit Current Measurements

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