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Service life prediction is one of the most important subjects for solar power plant development and operation. PID (Potential Induced Degradation), as a cause of degradation, needs to be studied. PV modules must be PID evaluated especially in the current frame of increasing the string voltage up to 1500V. In order to measure the resistance to PID, an adequate test must be designed, which could be selective, representative, and reproducible.

In order to determine the profitability of a PV project, power plant operators need to predict accurately the final energy production. It is crucial to know the operating power of PV modules. The correlation between the indoor measured power and the operating power is therefore a major issue for several services, such as project design, operation and maintenance. In order to install aging resistant modules, module tests should be selective and representative. In this paper, we implemented an indoor test methodology to accelerate PID degradation dependant on stress (T, RH, V) and mounting systems. The ultimate goal is to define a test protocol which could be representative, selective and reproducible. It could be used as recommendation to IEC 62804 draft. From our study, we concluded that low light behavior should be a mandatory criterion for pass/fail results. STC measurements are not sufficient for measuring PID consequences.

International audience; An experimental investigation of an instability occurring during dust nanoparticle formation is presented in this paper. The present study has been performed in radiofrequency low pressure plasma in an argon-silane mixture. The formation and growth of nanoparticles is followed, thanks to the analysis of the amplitude of the third harmonics (40.68 MHz) of the discharge current and the self-bias voltage (Vdc). In some cases, at the end of the accumulation phase of the nanocrystallites an instability occurs. It seems to be an attachment induced ionization instability as observed in electronegative plasmas. A detailed study of the influence of different operating conditions (injected power, gas temperature, and silane flow rate) on this instability behavior and frequencies is presented. The paper concludes by examining a very particular case of the instability.