No abstract

Potential-induced degradation (PID) of Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) photovoltaic (PV) modules fabricated from integrated submodules is investigated. PID tests were performed by applying a voltage of %1000 V to connected submodule interconnector ribbons at 85°C. The normalized energy conversion efficiency of a standard module decreases to 0.2 after the PID test for 14 days. This reveals that CIGS modules suffer PID under this experimental condition. In contrast, a module with non-alkali glass shows no degradation, which implies that the degradation occurs owing to alkali metal ions, e.g., Na + , migrating from the cover glass. The results of dynamic secondary ion mass spectrometry show Na accumulation in the n-ZnO transparent conductive oxide layer of the degraded module. A CIGS PV module with an ionomer (IO) encapsulant instead of a copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate shows no degradation. This reveals that the IO encapsulant can prevent PID of CIGS modules. A degraded module can recover from its performance losses by applying +1000 V to connected submodule interconnector ribbons from an Al plate placed on the test module.

It was experimentally found that surface recombination due to charge accumulation, called polarization-type potential-induced degradation (PID), occurs by applying high voltage in n-type crystalline Si photovoltaic (PV) modules. By contrast, polarization-type PID has not been observed yet in p-type crystalline Si PV modules. We investigated the effect of differences in anti-reflection coating (ARC) and the conduction type of the substrate used as a base for PV cells on PID. PID was examined for PV modules using p-type and n-type crystalline Si PV cells with a SiNx or SiNx/SiO2 stacked ARC layer. The results indicate that PID owing to charge accumulation occurs even for p-type crystalline Si PV modules by applying high positive voltage. Furthermore, we found that polarization-type PID due to charge accumulation in ARC, leading to surface recombination, is due not to the conduction type of the substrate but to the ARC structure.

Potential-induced degradation (PID) in p-type-based multicrystalline Si photovoltaic (PV) modules was experimentally generated applying À1000 V from an Al plate, which is attached on the front cover glass of the module, to the Si cell at 85 C for 2 h. The solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency (h) of the standard Si PV module significantly decreased after the PID test. In contrast, no degradation was observed in the modules, including a thin polyethylene (PE) film (30 mm thickness) with the copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate (EVA) as the encapsulant. It was suggested that the PE film whose volume resistivity is higher than that of EVA prevented the diffusion of Na + from the front cover glass toward the Si cell, resulting in a suppression of PID because different degradation processes during PID were observed in the EL images for the two modules, including a half PE film. In addition, the Si PV module, including a PE film, demonstrated stable performance after a damp-heat test (85 C/85% relative humidity) for 4000 h, although the h of the standard module significantly decreased from 16.0% to 7.6% after the test. Our results indicate an attractive and promising low-cost technique for improving the long-term stability of crystalline Si PV modules against potential and damp-heat-induced degradation.

No abstract