Performance and Aging of a 20-Year-Old Silicon PV System

Author

Jordan, Dirk C. ; Sekulic, B. ; Marion, B. ; Kurtz, Sarah R.

Author_Institution

Nat. Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO, USA

Volume

5

Issue

3

fYear

2015

fDate

May-15

Firstpage

744

Lastpage

751

Abstract

This paper examines the long-term performance of a 20-year-old crystalline silicon system. The degradation was found to be about 0.8%/year and is consistent with historical averages. In contrast with the majority of historical degradation, the decline for this particular system is more attributable to fill factor (FF) than to short-circuit current (Isc). The underlying cause was determined to be an increase in series resistance. We found no evidence that this system degrades significantly differently from its worst performing strings and modules. Maintenance events during the 20 years were dominated by inverter issues with a total of four replacements.

Keywords

ageing; elemental semiconductors; invertors; photovoltaic power systems; silicon; Si; aging; crystalline silicon system; degradation; fill factor; inverter; long-term performance; maintenance events; series resistance; silicon photovoltaic system; Arrays; Degradation; Inverters; Resistance; Silicon; Temperature measurement; Uncertainty; Degradation; durability; field performance; photovoltaic system; reliability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2396360

Filename

7042258