Developing Standards for PV Packaging Materials

The initial qualification standards for photovoltaic modules were designed to help develop a product that is safe, and able to survive reasonably long time periods when deployed in the field. To accomplish this, TC-82 of the International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC), developed and published module qualification standards (IEC 61215 for crystalline Si, IEC 61646 for thin films and IEC 62108 for concentrating modules) and a module safety standard (IEC 61730 -1 and 2). As PV has developed and the technology has become better understood, the properties of materials used in the module package play an increasingly important part in achieving long-term durability and safety. Certain basic properties are required of the materials in order for the modules to be safe and to be able to survive in the field for 25 years or more. Therefore Working Group 2 (Modules) of TC-82 began work to develop new material-level standards for PV that will utilize existing standards, whenever available, but tailored for characterizing the properties that are important for PV modules and modified to take into account the environmental conditions specific to PV applications. The goal is to provide a uniform approach to characterizing candidate materials, providing the necessary information to designers selecting materials for use in their PV products as well as to certification bodies assessing the quality and safety of the products made from these materials. This paper will describe the details of the effort underway to determine what PV material standards are necessary and the progress on developing those standards.