Measurement and validation of polysilicon photovoltaic module degradation rates over five years of field exposure in Oman

Honnurvali Mohamed Shaik; Adnan Kabbani; Abdul Manan Sheikh; Keng Goh; Naren Gupta; Tariq Umar; Honnurvali Mohamed Shaik; Adnan Kabbani; Abdul Manan Sheikh; Keng Goh; Naren Gupta; Tariq Umar

doi:10.3934/energy.2021055

AIMS Energy

2021, Volume 9, Issue 6: 1192-1212. doi: 10.3934/energy.2021055

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Research article Topical Sections

Measurement and validation of polysilicon photovoltaic module degradation rates over five years of field exposure in Oman

1.
Department of Electronics and Communication, A'sharqiyah University, P.O. Box 42, Postal Code 400, Ibra, Sultanate of Oman
2.
School of Engineering and Built Environment, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland, UK
3.
Department of Architecture and the Built Environment, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Received: 07 October 2021 Accepted: 19 November 2021 Published: 29 November 2021

Degradation of PV modules have a severe impact on its power-producing capabilities thus affecting the reliability, performance over the long run. To understand the PV degradation happening under the influence of local environmental conditions a survey was conducted on six polycrystalline silicon-based PV modules over five years. It has been observed that the average degradation rates stood at 1.02%/year at irradiances 800 W/m² and 0.99%/year at irradiances 600 W/m², which are almost double the manufacturer proposed values. Upon further investigations, it has been found that discoloration of encapsulant in modules 3, 5, and 6 have been the main factor causing the reduction of the short circuit current (I_sc) thus affecting the overall power production capacity of the installed PV system. Considering the amount of time, resources and manpower invested to perform this survey an alternate way of estimating the PV degradation rates is also investigated. The exponential decay factor-based model is adopted to correlate the encapsulant discoloration seen on-site in the form of a mathematical equation to predict the current loss. This loss is defined as the visual loss factor in this paper. Further, the output I-V curves are simulated using MATLAB Simulink-based mathematical model which also integrates visual loss factor (VLF) losses into it. Such simulated I-V curves have shown a good match with the measured I-V curves at the same irradiance with an error less than 3%. Authors anticipate that this modelling approach can open the door for further research in developing algorithms that can simulate the PV degradation rates.
- Photovoltaics,
- PV Degradation rate,
- Polysilicon,
- short circuit current,
- PV discoloration,
- visual loss factor,
- MATLAB,
- Standard test Conditions (STC)
Citation: Honnurvali Mohamed Shaik, Adnan Kabbani, Abdul Manan Sheikh, Keng Goh, Naren Gupta, Tariq Umar. Measurement and validation of polysilicon photovoltaic module degradation rates over five years of field exposure in Oman[J]. AIMS Energy, 2021, 9(6): 1192-1212. doi: 10.3934/energy.2021055

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Abstract

Degradation of PV modules have a severe impact on its power-producing capabilities thus affecting the reliability, performance over the long run. To understand the PV degradation happening under the influence of local environmental conditions a survey was conducted on six polycrystalline silicon-based PV modules over five years. It has been observed that the average degradation rates stood at 1.02%/year at irradiances 800 W/m² and 0.99%/year at irradiances 600 W/m², which are almost double the manufacturer proposed values. Upon further investigations, it has been found that discoloration of encapsulant in modules 3, 5, and 6 have been the main factor causing the reduction of the short circuit current (I_sc) thus affecting the overall power production capacity of the installed PV system. Considering the amount of time, resources and manpower invested to perform this survey an alternate way of estimating the PV degradation rates is also investigated. The exponential decay factor-based model is adopted to correlate the encapsulant discoloration seen on-site in the form of a mathematical equation to predict the current loss. This loss is defined as the visual loss factor in this paper. Further, the output I-V curves are simulated using MATLAB Simulink-based mathematical model which also integrates visual loss factor (VLF) losses into it. Such simulated I-V curves have shown a good match with the measured I-V curves at the same irradiance with an error less than 3%. Authors anticipate that this modelling approach can open the door for further research in developing algorithms that can simulate the PV degradation rates.

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