Interesting papers

[Anil Kottantharayil]

Photovoltaic failure and degradation modes Dirk C. Jordan, Timothy J. Silverman, John H. Wohlgemuth, Sarah R. Kurtz and Kaitlyn T. VanSant Version of Record online: 30 JAN 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/pip.2866 The extensive PV field reliability literature was analyzed and reviewed. The highest concerns of systems installed in the last 10 years appear to be hot spots followed by internal circuitry discoloration. Encapsulant discoloration was the most common degradation mode, particularly in older systems. Thin-film degradation modes are dominated by glass breakage and absorber corrosion, although the breadth of information for thin-film modules is much smaller than for x-Si.

EU PVSEC Papers

Identification of technical risks in the photovoltaic value chain and quantification of the economic impact David Moser, Matteo Del Buono, Ulrike Jahn, Magnus Herz, Mauricio Richter and Karel De Brabandere Version of Record online: 26 JAN 2017 | DOI: 10.1002/pip.2857 This paper presents the first attempt to implement cost-based failure modes and effects analysis to the photovoltaic (PV) sector and to define a methodology for the estimation of economic losses because of planning failures, system downtime and substitution/repair of components. To achieve this, available statistical data of failures during a PV project have been collected for a PV portfolio of over 430-MWp-installed PV capacity. The methodology is based on statistical analysis and can be applied to a single PV plant or to a large portfolio of PV plants in the same market segment. The technical risks during operation and maintenance were ranked based on a cost priority number. The analysis shows that high ranking failures for PV modules are glass breakage, potential induced degradation, snail tracks and defective backsheet. Most of these failures can be detected by simple visual inspection. For the inverters, the most important specific failure is related to fan failure and overheating. If only affected plants are considered, safety-related failures become predominant, for example, theft of modules and fire.

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Anil Kottantharayil, Ph. D.

Professor of Electrical Engineering

IIT Bombay

ani...@ee.iitb.ac.in

Office phone: +91 22 25767438

Website: https://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/wiki/faculty/anilkg