Water-module interaction studies

Author

Mon, G. ; Wen, L. ; Ross, R., Jr.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

1988

fDate

1988

Firstpage

1098

Abstract

Mechanisms by which moisture enters photovoltaic modules and techniques for reducing such interactions are reported. Results from a study of the effectiveness of various module sealants are given. Techniques for measuring the rate and quantity of moisture ingress are discussed. It is shown that scribe lines and porous frit bridging conductors provide preferential paths for moisture ingress and that moisture diffusion by surface/interfacial paths is considerably more rapid than diffusion by bulk paths, which implies that thin-film substrate and supersubstrate modules are much more vulnerable to moist environments than are bulk-encapsulated crystalline-silicon modules. Design approaches that reduce moisture entry are discussed.

Keywords

moisture; solar cells; bulk-encapsulated crystalline-silicon modules; moisture; photovoltaic modules; porous frit bridging conductors; scribe lines; sealants; solar cells; thin-film substrate; water; Circuit testing; Conductive films; Conductivity; Crystallization; Glass; Humidity; Moisture; Moisture measurement; Photovoltaic systems; Propulsion; Sealing materials; Solar power generation; Space technology; Strips; Substrates; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1988., Conference Record of the Twentieth IEEE

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1988.105875

Filename

105875