Highly Accelerated Thermal Cycling Test for New Type of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules

Increased demand for highly efficient photovoltaic modules at low costs is driving new solar cell designs. PERC, Half-cut and MBB cells are some of the new mainstream technologies that have emerged in the past few years. Like for conventional cells, thermo-mechanical stress is one of the most important factors affecting the long-term reliability of these new designs. In this study, we applied extended IEC61215 thermal cycling (TC) and highly accelerated thermal cycling (HATC) tests to modules incorporating these new cell designs. Modules submitted to the TC and HATC stress testing exhibited similar fill factor degradation and EL defects in both cases, indicating that HATC testing is a valid alternative test method for new module technologies and can be used to shorten testing time efficiently.