Title :
Outdoor performance stability and controlled light-soak testing of amorphous silicon multijunction modules at NREL
Author :
Mrig, Laxmi ; Burdick, Joseph ; Luft, Werner ; Kroposki, Benjamin
Author_Institution :
Nat. Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO, USA
Abstract :
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been testing amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules for more than a decade. NREL has been conducting controlled light-soak testing of multijunction a-Si modules to characterize their performance for stability evaluation as well as to benchmark the technology status. Some of the test modules, after controlled light-soak testing, have been installed outdoors. The authors have observed that under outdoor exposure, the modules further degrade in performance, possibly due to lower outdoor temperatures and varying spectra. The paper presents data on the light-induced degradation for the third controlled light-soak test on multijunction a-Si modules as well as outdoor performance data on single- and multijunction modules under prevailing conditions
Keywords :
Staebler-Wronski effect; amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; optical saturable absorption; p-n heterojunctions; semiconductor device testing; silicon; solar cell arrays; solar cells; NREL; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Si; a-Si solar cells; amorphous semiconductor; light-soak testing; multijunction PV modules; outdoor exposure; outdoor performance degradation; outdoor temperatures; stability evaluation; technology status benchmarking; varying spectra; Amorphous silicon; Benchmark testing; Degradation; Laboratories; Lighting control; Photovoltaic systems; Renewable energy resources; Solar power generation; Stability; Temperature;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Waikoloa, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1460-3
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520014
