Knowledge

PVDETECT

Created by E.Ö., SUPSI, on 04.04.2024

Time frame

Start date: 01.11.2022

End date: 31.10.2025

Partners

OFI Österr. Forschungsinstitut für Chemie und Technik – Material Analytics and Environmental Simulation

Sonnenkraft GmbH

Abstract

In the mountainous countries of Switzerland and Austria, the availability of open spaces for ground-based PV systems is limited, which is why PV systems also have to be installed as integrated solutions in buildings, infrastructures, multi-purpose applications and alpine regions. PV systems operating in such “unconventional” environments must withstand different and enhanced stresses than those developed for large-area field installations in moderate climates. Depending on the application and environmental conditions, additional loads beyond the limits of IEC standard tests (higher UV and mechanical loads for the alpine environment or increased thermal loads for BIPV etc.) can accelerate the degradation of PV modules. In order to accelerate the spread of PV systems in demanding environments, it is necessary to select stress optimised materials, components and a module architecture that can withstand the increased loads and prevent early/premature module failures and unexpected performance losses. To enable efficient and fast product development, advanced tools for early quantitative detection of potential failures/degradation modes (induced by increased stress impact) are required. PV-DETECT aims to develop a method for early detection of failures through advanced reliability testing combined with sensitive degradation detection. This advanced methodology provides PV module manufacturers with a tool to accelerate the development of PV modules designed for specific environmental conditions or applications by a factor > 3 (more reliable results in much shorter testing times). The comparative assessment will allow to identify the weaknesses of specific module architectures and bill-of-material approaches at a very early stage (few weeks) of the development phase. Based on these results, it will be possible to summarise the possibilities of using new designs and materials to increase the system´s resilience to extreme stress conditions. In this work, to be able develop highly accelerated aging tests that simulate the stressors of alpine conditions as closely as possible, existing Alpine PV systems are investigated (Figure 1).

Keywords: Early failure detection, accelerated product development, reliability, Alpine PV, BIPV

Figure 1: Non-destructive material measurements at Alpine PV installations.
Figure 2: Workflow of PVDETECT.

Funded by

Solareranet – Swiss Office of Energy

Solareranet – The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

Dissemination