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research article

Corrosion testing of solar cells: Wear-out degradation behavior

Fairbrother, Andrew  
•
Gnocchi, Luca  
•
Ballif, Christophe  
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December 1, 2022
Solar Energy Materials And Solar Cells

Corrosion is one of the main end-of-life degradation and failure modes in photovoltaic (PV) modules. However, it is a gradual process and can take many years to become a major risk factor because of the slow accumulation of water and acetic acid (from encapsulant ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) degradation). In this work, an accelerated aging test for acetic acid corrosion was developed to probe wear-out and end-of-life behavior and facilitate screening of new cell, passivation, metallization, and interconnection technologies. In the tests, the top glass and EVA layers were removed from PV modules to expose the solar cells and interconnects. These "opened" modules were then placed in acid baths under varying conditions, including acid concentration, temperature, and elec-trical bias. Three cell technologies were tested, including Al-back surface field (BSF), passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC), and silicon heterojunction (SHJ). For all conditions, the presence of acid accelerated module power loss compared to control tests with water baths. Increased temperature accelerated the rate of degradation by several times. Application of electrical bias led to an initial drop in short circuit current, but these modules eventually outperformed the non-biased modules. In all tests, lead oxides were the primary degradation products detected, and found to accumulate mostly along the printed metallization, especially in proximity to the busbar. SHJ cells with a silver paste-based interconnection outperformed Al-BSF and PERC cells with a solder-based interconnection. The accelerated corrosion test methods can be optimized to match corrosion behavior observed in field modules with greater precision and shorter times than standard damp heat tests, and is espe-cially useful to assess the long-term durability of the continuously increasing variety of corrosion sensitive PV materials and components.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111974
Web of Science ID

WOS:000862219800003

Author(s)
Fairbrother, Andrew  
Gnocchi, Luca  
Ballif, Christophe  
Virtuani, Alessandro  
Date Issued

2022-12-01

Publisher

ELSEVIER

Published in
Solar Energy Materials And Solar Cells
Volume

248

Article Number

111974

Subjects

Energy & Fuels

•

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

•

Physics, Applied

•

Materials Science

•

Physics

•

modules

•

corrosion

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acetic acid

•

degradation

•

qualification

•

testing

•

reliability

•

wear -out

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
PV-LAB  
Available on Infoscience
October 24, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/191526
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