Dominant factors affecting reliability of alternating current photovoltaic modules

A discussion of the most important factors affecting the reliability of alternating current photovoltaic (ACPV) modules is provided. The discussion is supported with experimental results taken from accelerated testing of multiple commercial products. Further results are provided from non-commercial experiments focused on comparisons between various encapsulation techniques. This empirical study suggests that the dominant factors in ACPV reliability can be overlooked easily and are quite difficult to model.