How double-glass laminated amorphous silicon solar modules break in the field: A case study

About 160 double-glass laminated amorphous silicon solar modules, which were found broken in a BIPV and a ground-mounted project sites, were shipped back to the manufacturer for breakage mechanism investigation. Glass surface inspection and fracture surface analysis were carried out to find out the breakage origin and the tensile stress concentrated on the origin. These modules can be classified into three groups according to the root causes of origin formation. More care shall be taken during installation and maintenance since a large part of modules from both sites were knocked or chucked, and then broke afterwards. Mounting systems have to be improved for double-glass laminated modules as the clamping structure induced more than 50% of breakage in the modules from the ground-mounted project. Scratches on the front glass surface and local glass bending at the module short edges generated origins and tensile stress for the breakage accounting for 55.3% of modules from the BIPV project, and thus shall be minimized. It is suggested that sufficient training and proper machines or tools are very critical for the complicated façade installation to avoid the scratch formation.