An alternative corrosion resistance test method for solar cells and interconnection materials limiting the number of long-lasting and expensive damp-heat climate chamber tests

Damp-heat testing of PV modules is a time-consuming process, taking months. We present an alternative test method: electrochemical noise (EcN) measurements. Data acquisition times vary between minutes for direct exposure to several tens of hours for encapsulated samples. EcN measurements are presented for several solar cell concepts and different environments. We have found that the degradation in damp-heat testing is proportional to the electrochemical noise signal. In conclusion, the electrochemical noise measurements are a fast, versatile tool to test the corrosion resistance of solar cells, which can be tested for different environments including encapsulation.