Temperature profiles of field-aged photovoltaic modules affected by optical degradation

Moisture ingress into PV module in the presence of ultraviolet radiation, high temperature, and other environmental stressors can affect the optical integrity of the PV module. Optical degradation can take the form of delamination, discolouration of encapsulant, metal grids corrosion, and trapped moisture or chemical species. This can influence the photon absorption and current transport properties in the PV module bulk, which can affect the module operating temperature. In the present work, the relationship between optical degradation and temperature sensitivity of 20-year-old multicrystalline silicon field-aged PV modules have been investigated. The selected PV modules were characterized using visual inspection, current-voltage (I–V) characterization, temperature coefficients profiling, current resistivity profiling, infrared (IR) thermal, ultraviolet fluorescence (UV–F), and electroluminescence (EL) imaging. PV modules affected by optical degradation show weak fluorescence and luminescence signal intensities. The average difference in cell temperature (ΔT) between the warmest and coldest cell for the PV modules investigated was found to be around 10 ± 2 °C and the average power degradation rate was approximately 0.8% per year. The underlying factor for the observed degradation is attributed to the degradation in the temperature coefficients of open circuit voltage (β(Voc)) and maximum power point voltage (β(Vmpp)). The average temperature coefficient of efficiency (β(ηm)) of the modules was found to be around −0.5%/°C. Finally, a temperature dependent resistivity method for extracting temperature coefficients from IR thermal data of PV modules has been proposed.