A Study of Commonly Observed Degradation Methods in Photovoltaic Modules

Photovoltaic reliability is very crucial in the field of energy generation. Photovoltaic high reliability can be conditioned in three ways – degradation resulting in no sudden failure, degradation leading to failure, and sudden failure of photovoltaics. The outdoor installed photovoltaic (PV) modules are in constant exposure to numerous external stresses such as temperature, humidity, mechanical loading due to heavy ice, soil, and dust in their entire life. Likewise, internal stresses like material choice, designing, and fabrication can also induce degradation in a PV module. Both these stresses impact the photovoltaic modules regarding performance and energy conversion efficiency. The impact of different stresses can be investigated experimentally through an accelerated test by duplicating the conditions in fielded modules. The paper primarily focuses on insights into the types and effects of degradations on PV modules along with the historical survey of reported degradations in crystalline silicon, thin film, and emerging photovoltaic technologies.