A five-year Sandia Labs research on photo voltaic module degradation reveals that 13 out of 23 examined module sorts have efficient lifetimes exceeding 30 years.
From pv magazine USA
The US Division of Vitality’s Sandia Nationwide Laboratories has concluded a five-year, early-life photo voltaic module degradation study that examined 834 fielded PV modules, representing 13 sorts from seven producers in three climates.
The report, lately printed in Progress in Photovoltaics, studied 23 techniques in complete. Six of the studied have been decided to have degradation charges that may exceed panel guarantee limits sooner or later, whereas 13 techniques demonstrated the flexibility to increase their lifetime past 30 years. “Lifetime” on this research is outlined because the period of time a panel produces electrical energy above 80% of its beginning-of-life charge.
The report mentioned that module prices have fallen by 85% since 2010 as a consequence of economies of scale, greater efficiencies in cell designs, manufacturing line automation, bigger modules, and modifications to invoice of supplies elements like backsheets. It mentioned that decrease prices have led to photo voltaic changing into a central a part of power infrastructure buildout at the moment, however famous that cost-cutting design and materials modifications may result in a lowered degradation charge, which in-turn may cancel out lots of the optimistic outcomes of decrease module prices.
The degradation research confirmed that degradation is very nonlinear over time and seasonal differences are current in some module sorts. Imply and median degradation charge values of −0.62%/12 months and −0.58%/12 months, respectively, are in step with charges measured for older modules.
The report mentioned that the market share of cell sorts has shifted dramatically in recent times. In 2018, typical aluminum again floor discipline (Al-BSF) designs dominated world photo voltaic cell manufacturing, representing as much as 90%. By 2020, the market share shifted to solely 15% AI-BSF and 80% high-efficiency cell ideas like passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC), passivated emitter with rear regionally subtle cell (PERL), passivated emitter rear completely subtle cell (PERT), silicon heterojunction (SHJ), and tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon).
The report mentioned there’s a lack of long-term discipline knowledge for these new cell and module applied sciences. It aimed to deal with that lack of knowledge by learning every of those applied sciences within the discipline over time.
Nameplate energy score variations ranged from round −3.6% to 4% with preliminary energy stabilization various from −3.3% to +0.6%. Flash-over-flash measurements confirmed variable efficiency with seasonality amplifying the variations.
Total, the degradation charges discovered within the work have been inside the values noticed prior to now from 1979 to 2014 module applied sciences for dearer typical PV applied sciences. The research concluded, though the prices declined sharply within the final decade, module degradation charges don’t appear to be affected, a minimum of for the pattern investigated within the report.
