Corrosion effects in bifacial crystalline silicon PV modules; interactions between metallization and encapsulation

This study addresses the influence of different encapsulation materials on performance losses in bifacial PV modules after extended damp heat testing. The widely used ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) is compared to polyolefin elastomers (POE) and thermoplastic polyolefins (TPO). We show that modules based on n-type bifacial solar cells (tunnel oxide...

Balancing costs and revenues for recycling end-of-life PV panels in the Netherlands

In the past decade photovoltaic (PV) solar energy in The Netherlands has become a substantial part of the total energy generation system with more than 14 gigawatt (GW) peak power installed by 2021. At the current impressive growth rate of 3.5 GW per year it is expected that the targets set for 2030 following from the climate agreements can be...

Public final report Anti-soiling And PV (ASAP)

The project Anti-soiling And PV (ASAP) was initiated by TNO, DSM and Rebor B.V. with the aim to study the effects of anti-soiling coatings on the power output of PV panels in an environment prone to soiling in The Netherlands. Already a market leader in anti-reflective coatings for solar photo-voltaic (PV) applications, DSM has begun the...

Post mortem analysis of bifacial PV modules based on N-type crystalline-SI cells using three different types of encapsulants

The IEC 61215 standard for PV modules requires a damp heat (DH) test (1000 h at 85°C, 85 % relative humidity). To have a better alignment with field observations extended and/or sequential testing protocols have been proposed, which involves for DH test a longer testing time under the same conditions. In this study small sized bifacial PV...

Business cases for anti-soiling coatings in the Netherlands

This paper focuses on the application of coatings with combined anti-soiling and anti-reflective properties in the Netherlands. The main goal is to provide different perspectives and case studies for the application of this new technology in a fast-growing market, identifying the best scenarios from the user’s and investor’s point of view. A...

Highlights from the FP7 project on photovoltaics CHEETAH: More power with less material

CHEETAH is an FP7 integrated research project on photovoltaics funded by the European Commission and was initiated by EERA PV. This project is structured into two type of activities: Coordinative and Support actions (CSA) and Joint Research activities (JRA). The CSA focuses on the creation of a long term collaborative platform by developing...

Adapting PV for various applications

PV applications run from field installations, to building added PV to PV integrated into building, infrastructure and landscapes. Specifically, applications of integrated PV may demand very different properties of the PV panels, such as design, shade tolerance, resistance to harsh climatic conditions and the ability to capture light under non...

Looking at the annual yield from various angles: Optical model verification for structured glass

In software for yearly yield calculations, normally an empirical formula is used to take the angular dependence into account. This has been shown to work nicely for standard modules. Recently light management by structures on or in the cells or module has become increasingly important. They are used to increase the path length of the light...

Anti-soiling coatings for PV modules

Application of large scale photo-voltaic installations in remote desert regions – such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) faces a number of challenges: high operating temperatures and UV dose are well known conditions to take into account in view of product lifetime. On top of that yearly yields are under pressure by a phenomenon known...

Outdoor operational stability of indium-free flexible polymer solar modules over 1 year studied in India, Holland and Denmark

We present an outdoor interlaboratory stability study of fully printed and coated indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-free polymer solar cell modules in JNCASR Bangalore (India), ECN (Holland), and DTU (Denmark) carried over more than 1 year. The modules comprising a fully printed and coated stack (Ag grid/PEDOT:PSS/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag grid) were...

Worldwide outdoor round robin study of organic photovoltaic devices and modules

Accurate characterization and reporting of organic photovoltaic (OPV) device performance remains one of the important challenges in the ?eld. The large spread among the ef?ciencies of devices with the same structure reported by different groups is signi?cantly caused by different procedures and equipment used during testing. The presented...

New test and characterization methods for PV modules and cells

This report describes the results of project geZONd (shared facility for solar module analysis and reliability testing), set up by Philips, ECN, Holst, Solland, OM&T and Holland Innovative. The partners have shared most of their testing and analysis equipment for PV modules and cells, and together developed new or improved methods (including...

The use of polyurethane as encapsulating method for polymer solar cells – an inter laboratory study on outdoor stability in 8 countries

A new encapsulation method for organic solar cells has been tested on flexible solar modules and cells embedded in polyurethane,sandwiched between a tempered glass plate and a polycarbonate plate. Panels, each containing 10 organic solar modules/cells, were fabricated and installed for outdoor exposure in eight different countries for 4&#189...

An inter-laboratory stability study of roll-to-roll coated flexible polymer solar modules

A large number of flexible polymer solar modules comprising 16 serially connected individual cells was prepared at the experimental workshop at Risø DTU. The photoactive layer was prepared from several varieties of P3HT (Merck, Plextronics, BASF and Risø DTU) and two varieties of ZnO (nanoparticulate, thin film) were employed as electron...

The mechanism behind the beneficial effect of light soaking on injection efficiency and photocurrent in dye sensitized solar cells

Electrical and luminescence characterization was performed on 16 dye sensitized solar cells with different formulations, from different industrial and academic sources. Most of the cells were fabricated in pre-industrial pilot lines. The cells were put through a light soaking period up to 150 hours and then re-characterized. The results show the...

Efficient and robust dye-sensitized solar cells and modules

This paper describes the progress of the research and development that is carried out by a consortium in the frame of the European project ROBUST DSC. The project spans a wide range of activities from basic research including innovative materials development, advanced characterization, and predictive modeling to more applied technology...

Long term stability of dye sensitized solar cells

During accelerated lifetime testing of dye sensitized solar cells high temperature and intense illumination have been identified as critical stress factors. It is known that the choice of dye and electrolyte determines cell stability to a large extent. In this paper we have applied a combination of Z907 dye and a derivative of so called “Maxell...

Measuring charge transport from transient photovoltage rise times a new tool to investigate electron transport in nanoparticle films

Charge transport rate at open-circuit potential (Voc) is proposed as a new characterization method for dyesensitized (DS) and other nanostructured solar cells. At Voc, charge density is flat and measurable, which simplifies quantitative comparison of transport and charge density. Transport measured at Voc also allows meaningful comparison of...