Title :
Investigation of the degradation in field-aged photovoltaic modules
Author :
Rabii, A.B. ; Jraidi, M. ; Bouazzi, A.S.
Author_Institution :
PVSML, ENIT, Tunis Belvedere, Tunisia
Abstract :
Installed polycrystalline photovoltaic panels underwent infield degradation; they lost an average of more than 60% of their output peak power in 12 years. We present in this paper the result of our investigation to determine the causes of this degradation. We try to identify these causes and the mechanism of the lost of the cell characteristics by using "hot spot", dark current and transmittance measurements on dismantled parts of a PV panel. A theoretical model is also under development to simulate the degraded I-V characteristic.
Keywords :
dark conductivity; elemental semiconductors; encapsulation; grain boundaries; modules; photovoltaic power systems; power system measurement; silicon; solar cells; solar power; 12 year; PV panels; Si; dark current measurement; degraded I-V characteristics simulation; field aged photovoltaic modules; grain boundaries; hot spot measurement; infield degradation; installed polycrystalline photovoltaic panels; solar cells; transmittance measurement;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of 3rd World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Osaka, Japan
Print_ISBN :
4-9901816-0-3
