One key factor of reducing the costs of photovoltaic systems is to increase the reliability and the service life time of the PV modules. Today's statistics show degradation rates of the rated power for crystalline silicon PV modules of 0.8%/year Jordan11. To increase the reliability and the service life of PV modules one has to understand the challenges involved. For this reason, the international Task 13 expert team has summarized the literature as well as their knowledge and personal experiences on actual failures of PV modules. The target audience of this work is PV module designers, PV industry, engineering lines, test equipment developers, testing companies, technological research laboratories, standardisation committees, as well as national and regional planning authorities. In the first part, this document reports on the measurement methods which allow the identification and analysis of PV module failures. Currently, a great number of methods are available to characterise PV module failures outdoors and in labs. As well as using I-V characteristics as a diagnostic tool, we explain image based methods and visual inspection. For each method we explain the basis, indicate current best practice, and explain how to interpret the images. Three thermography methods are explained: thermography under steady state conditions, pulse thermography and lock-in thermography. The most commonly used of these methods is thermography under steady state conditions. Furthermore electroluminescence methods have become an increasingly popular standard lab approach for detecting failures in PV modules. 2A less common but easier to use method is UV fluorescence. This method can be used to detect module failures similar to those detected with thermography and electroluminescence techniques; however, the PV modules must be sited outdoors for at least one and a half years for the method to be effective. For visual documentation of module conditions in the field, we set up a standard which is now accepted and used by all authors documenting such tests. This standard format allows the documentation of visible module failures in standardised way and makes the data accessible for statistical evaluation. Furthermore we introduce a signal transition method for the detection of defective circuits in installed PV modules. All methods are linked to the PV module failures which are able to be found with these methods. In the second part, the most common failures of PV modules are described in detail. In particular these failures are: delamination, back sheet adhesion loss, junction box failure, frame breakage, EVA discolouration, cell cracks, snail tracks, burn marks, potential induced degradation, disconnected cell and string interconnect ribbons, defective bypass diodes; and special failures of thin-film modules, such as micro arcs at glued connectors, shunt hot spots, front glass breakage, and back contact degradation. Where possible, the origin of the failure is explained. A reference to the characterisation method is given to identify the failure. If available, statistics of the failure type in the field and from accelerating aging tests are shown. For each failure, a description of safety issues and the influence on the power loss is given, including typical follow-up failure modes. In the third part, new test methods are proposed for detection of PV module failures in the field. A special focus is made on mechanical tests because many problems have arisen in the last few years from the mechanical loading of modules. These mechanical loads occur during transportation and from snow loads on modules mounted on an incline. Furthermore, testing for UV degradation of PV modules, ammonia corrosion (sometimes found in roofs of stock breeding buildings) and potential induced degradation are described. The latter method caused some controversy within the international standardization committee until the finalization of this report because many alternative suggestions from different countries were proposed. The test methods are explained in detail, linked to failure descriptions and the results are compared to real failure occurrences, where possible. During a past Task 13 project phase, we recognised that the topic â��3.2 Characterising and Classifying Failures of PV Modulesâ�� is an important on-going subject in the field of PV research. The current review of failure mechanisms shows that the origin and the power loss associated with some important PV module failures is not yet clear (e.g. snail tracks and cell cracks). There are also still some questions as to how best to test for some types of failure (e.g. potential induced degradation and cell cracks). Furthermore, despite the fact that a defective bypass diode or cell interconnect ribbon in a PV module may possibly lead to a fire, very little work has been done to detect these defects in an easy and reliable way once installed in a PV system. However, there are research groups currently working on those topics in order to overcome these challenges. Therefore, it is planed to continue our in-depth review of failures of photovoltaic modules in an extension of the TASK 13 project.

Review of Failures of Photovoltaic Modules

Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy recorded an exponential growth, in worldwide scale, over the last decade. Inevitably, mature PV markets are becoming highly competitive, boosting the need for research and development (R&D) on efficiency and reliability optimization, maintenance and fault diagnosis of key components, such as the PV modules. Indeed, a significant number of studies and technical papers have been published up today, based on an extensive feedback from both laboratory and real (field) investigations of faults and advanced diagnosis applications, especially for crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV modules. Undoubtedly, such experience is of particular interest for current PV plant operators, future investors, maintenance engineers and the R&D sector of PV industry. However, up today, such research, published in the form of reports, technical papers or even books, remains mostly dispersed and unclassified. This paper represents a comprehensive effort to review and highlight recent advances, ongoing research and future prospects, as reported in the literature, on the classification of faults in c-Si PV modules and advanced diagnosis in the field, by means of the increasingly popular method of infrared thermal (IRT) imaging. In particular, the first main part of this paper, reviews the characteristics of the most common fault types of operating PV modules, in terms of electrical and thermal response. Then, the second part gives a thorough review of recently published research, as well as the state-of-the-art, in the fields of IRT-based fault diagnosis and thermal image processing. On the basis of these two individual though supplementary review parts, an overview table is presented, followed by a discussion on the future prospects and challenges, towards the understanding and diagnosis of faults and their propagation in operating PV modules.

Faults and infrared thermographic diagnosis in operating c-Si photovoltaic modules: A review of research and future challenges

High performing extraction procedure for the one-diode model of a photovoltaic panel from experimental I–V curves by using reduced forms

Reliability of IR-imaging of PV-plants under operating conditions

Today, conventional condition monitoring of installed, operating photovoltaic (PV) modules is mainly based on electrical measurements and performance evaluation. However, such practices exhibit restricted fault-detection ability. This study proposes the use of standard thermal image processing and the Canny edge detection operator as diagnostic tools for module-related faults that lead to hot-spot heating effects. The intended techniques were applied on thermal images of defective PV modules, from several field infrared thermographic measurements conducted during this study. The whole approach provided promising results with the detection of hot-spot formations that were diagnosed to specific defective cells in each inspected module. These evolving hot spots lead to abnormally low performance of the PV modules, a fact that is also validated by the manufacturer's standard electrical tests.

Fault diagnosis of photovoltaic modules through image processing and Canny edge detection on field thermographic measurements

Analysis of PV Modules by Electroluminescence and IR Thermography

First Results - Correlation Between IR Images and Electrical Behavior and Energy Yield of PV Modules

Introduction In October 2007 a Round-Robin-Test was started on the part of the Fraunhofer IWES Kassel and the University of Applied Sciences Munich in cooperation with BEC-Engineering with 18 irradiation sensors on two identical experimental setups located at the two sites under similar field conditions. In focus thereby are the sensor values which are analyzed as instantaneous values (in terms of diurnal variations at different locations and under specific weather conditions) or as daily, monthly or annual energy sums. The first complete year of measuring data from the Round-Robin-test is available (2008) and was analyzed.

G. Wotruba

Papers

Analysis of PV Modules by Electroluminescence and IR Thermography

First Results - Correlation Between IR Images and Electrical Behavior and Energy Yield of PV Modules

One Year Round Robin Testing of Irradiation Sensors - Measurement Results and Analyses

Evaluation of Calibrated Solar Cells and Pyranometers Regarding the Effective Irradiance Detected by PV Modules

Round-Robin-Test of Irradiance Sensors