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While the solar industry is growing rapidly, materials, designs and solar panels are changing rapidly
For the solar photovoltaic (PV) sector, rapid growth can bring rapid – and sometimes unpredictable – changes. As the industry continued to experience major growth in 2023, the Sustainable Module Materials (DuraMAT) Consortium seized the opportunity to support the industry's booming domestic manufacturing and deployment sectors by developing guidelines for building reliable, sustainable PV modules (also known as solar panels).
The recently released DuraMAT Annual Report FY 2023 describes the consortium's development of a reliability prediction strategy, as well as key findings on the impacts of cell cracking, high-efficiency modules, material degradation and recycling.
DuraMAT is led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as core research laboratories, and funded by the US Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. The consortium is working with a 22-member solar energy sector board with the aim of accelerating a sustainable, just and equitable transition to carbon-free electricity generation by 2035.
Their annual report unveils new strategies and recommendations that can benefit today's manufacturers and tomorrow's consumers.
With new materials come new behaviors, which past experiences may not predict
Currently, reliability testing in the solar industry relies on factors observed in the field with existing modules, but the industry is innovating so quickly that the performance of current modules is no longer always a reliable indicator of what will happen in the future. to happen. To address this development, DuraMAT introduced a new focus on reliability predictions in 2023.
“We awarded six projects this year under our reliability forecasting call,” said Teresa Barnes, DuraMAT director and NREL researcher. “These projects predict potential degradation factors such as ultraviolet (UV)-induced degradation, glass fracture mechanics and degradation mechanisms in encapsulants, and also allow for faster analysis of failure data. By drawing insights from all these areas, we could predict the long-term reliability of new module designs.”
Rather than relying on field observations of large-scale post-deployment issues – as PV reliability research has traditionally done – DuraMAT reliability prediction asks fundamental research questions about how a material, interface, component or module will evolve over many years. will change for years to come.
This approach is based on quantitative modeling and rapid validation, which has led to the development of a range of open source software and datasets on topics such as mechanical models for materials, wind loading, fracture mechanics, moisture diffusion and irradiation – all accessible through the DuraMAT Data Hub.
Cell cracking and UV degradation: lessons for industry
In 2023, DuraMAT projects investigated two other degradation mechanisms that appear to be evolving with new module designs: cell cracking and UV degradation.
Cracked cells pose a challenge to the solar industry because they can reduce production but often go unnoticed. Researchers found that some newer modules with many rails, half-cut cells, and glass-glass encapsulation are more tolerant of cracked cells and less likely to experience power loss. Changes in module design, such as rotating cells within the module, can also make modules less susceptible to cell breakage.
DuraMAT researchers also found that UV-induced degradation appears to be a major problem in recent modules made with high-efficiency cells. These results are important because the increased degradation related to UV exposure in modern cell types may offset some of the predicted gains of bifacial and other high-efficiency cells. DuraMAT will start new work to quantify this degradation in 2024.
The next generation of PV reliability leaders is lining up
The whole point of the DuraMAT Consortium is to take the long view. The DuraMAT Early Career Scientists (DECS) program is an extension of that forward-looking approach. After all, the lifespan of solar panels is only expected to become longer, and the industry will need scientists to support this reliability research well into the future.
The DECS program aims to connect early-career scientists, promote cross-institutional collaboration, and provide professional development and networking opportunities for these important and innovative new researchers. This year, DECS participants continue to represent DuraMAT by giving research presentations, serving as session chairs at national and international conferences, and publishing papers – all of which can be found in the DuraMAT Annual Report.
Dive into the details
“We know that DuraMAT research has a direct impact on the design and sustainability of PV modules,” said Michael Owen-Bellini, a DuraMAT Leadership Fellow and researcher at NREL. “One of the projects in the annual report, for example, shows this rotating half cells in module designs makes modules mechanically more durable – and we see this reflected in some of the latest half-cell modules on the market.”
View the full DuraMAT annual report 2023.
Read more about DuraMAT's history and research in this 2022 NREL feature story.
Contact [email protected] for more information about working with the DuraMAT Consortium.
By Sara Fall and Harrison Dreves. Politeness by NREL.
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