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 language | American English |
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Article number | 9360841 |
Pages (from-to) | 760-769 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 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