Acceleration of degradation by highly accelerated stress test and air-included highly accelerated stress test in crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules

We examined the effects of hyper-hygrothermal stresses with or without air on the degradation of crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules, to shorten the required duration of a conventional hygrothermal-stress test [i.e., the “damp heat (DH) stress test”, which is conducted at 85 °C/85% relative humidity for 1,000 h]. Interestingly, the encapsulant within a PV module becomes discolored under the air-included hygrothermal conditions achieved using DH stress test equipment and an air-included highly accelerated stress test (air-HAST) apparatus, but not under the air-excluded hygrothermal conditions realized using a highly accelerated stress test (HAST) machine. In contrast, the reduction in the output power of the PV module is accelerated irrespective of air inclusion in hyper-hygrothermal test atmosphere. From these findings, we conclude that the required duration of the DH stress test will at least be significantly shortened using air-HAST, but not HAST.