Interim Qualification Tests and Procedures for Terrestrial Photovoltaic Thin-Film Flat-Plate Modules

This document provides recommended procedures and specifications for qualification tests that are structured to evaluate terrestrial thin-film flat-plate photovoltaic nonconcentrating modules intended for power generation applications. The qualification tests provided in this document are designed to evaluate flat-plate thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module design performance and susceptibility toknown failure mechanisms. Emphasis is placed on testing and evaluating module performance characteristics and design features that will affect possible degradation of module performance and physical properties resulting from solar exposure, environmental weathering, mechanical loading, corrosion, and module shadowing. Because of limited thin-film module field operation experience and theevolutionary nature of new thin-film module material technologies and designs, these tests should not be considered definitive or complete, nor do they provide a basis to predict 30-year field life. Current understanding of failure and degradation mechanisms and the relationship between accelerated tests and field reliability is not sufficient to allow accurate estimation of life-expectancy, norare the cycling tests given in this document considered to be equivalent to a full 30-year field exposure. However, the test and evaluation procedures given in this document provide a common approach for conducting qualification tests. Acceptable results from these tests should provide reasonable assurance that the modules that pass these tests will perform reliably in the field but for anunspecified period of time.