Reliability and Lifetime Issues for New Photovoltaic Technologies

The purposes of this paper are to elucidate the crucial importance of predicting the service lifetime (SLP) for new photovoltaic technologies (PV) modules and to present an outline for developing a SLP methodology for encapsulated PV cells and minimodules. Specific objectives are (a) to illustrate the essential need and generic nature of SLP for several types of existing solar energy conversionor conservation devices, (b) to elucidate the complexity associated with quantifying the durability of these devices, (c) to define and explain the seven major elements that constitute a generic SLP methodology, (d) to show that implementing the SLP methodology for developing laboratory-scale PV cells and minimodules can reduce the cost of technology development, and (e) to outline an acceptablemethodology for relating accelerated life testing to real time testing, using sufficient sample numbers, and applying the methodology in (c) for predicting a service lifetime. The major conclusions are that predicting the service lifetime of PV cells and minimodules should be an essential part of the research and development for developing any future generation PV technology and that using theSLP methodology can be most cost-effectively applied to laboratory scale PV cells and minidevices.