Climate specific accelerated ageing tests

As photovoltaics shows a large growth potential in climatic-sensible regions, specific artificial ageing test procedures are required for an efficient and reliable development of new PV module designs, components and materials optimized for the use in these future markets. A program was worked out with 10 specific stress combinations for accelerated ageing tests simulating tropical, arid, moderate and alpine climates as well as additional environmental factors like snow and wind-load, salty atmosphere or large temperature fluctuations. The accelerating effect of enhanced temperature, humidity and/or irradiation on the degradation of materials and consequential on the power output could be shown. Additional mechanical load and temperature cycling gave rise to breakage of interconnectors and cells. The failures and performance losses observed in PV-plants installed in various climate zones worldwide are compared to the failure modes and degradation effects detected upon climate specific accelerated aeging testing.