Nondestructive Characterization of Antireflective Coatings on PV Modules

Todd Karin, David Miller, Anubhav Jain

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Antireflective coatings (ARCs) are used on the vast majority of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules to increase power production. However, ARC longevity can vary from less than 1 to over 15 years depending on coating quality and deployment conditions. A technique that can quantify ARC degradation nondestructively on commercial modules would be useful both for in-field diagnostics and accelerated aging tests. In this article, we demonstrate that accurate measurements of ARC spectral reflectance can be performed using a modified commercially available integrating-sphere probe. The measurement is fast, accurate, nondestructive, and can be performed outdoors in full-sun conditions. We develop an interferometric model that estimates coating porosity, thickness, and fractional area coverage from the measured reflectance spectrum for a uniform single-layer coating. We demonstrate the measurement outdoors on an active PV installation, identify the presence of an ARC, and estimate the properties of the coating.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number9360841
Pages (from-to)760-769
Number of pages10
JournalIEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2011-2012 IEEE.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5K00-79629

Keywords

  • Instrumentation and measurement
  • Instrumentation and measurement
  • Interferometry
  • Open source software
  • Optical interferometry
  • Optical variables measurement
  • Reflection coefficient
  • Solar panels
  • Solar power generation

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