Proceedings Article | 20 August 2009
Proc. SPIE. 7412, Reliability of Photovoltaic Cells, Modules, Components, and Systems II
KEYWORDS: Thin films, Photovoltaics, Solar energy, Glasses, Ultraviolet radiation, Solar cells, Silicon, Manufacturing, Reliability, Failure analysis
The continued exponential growth of photovoltaic technologies paves a path to a solar-powered world, but requires
continued progress toward low-cost, high-reliability, and high-performance PV systems. High reliability is an essential
element in achieving low-cost solar electricity by reducing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs and by extending
system lifetime and availability, but these attributes are difficult to verify at the time of installation. Utilities, financiers,
homeowners, and planners are demanding this information in order to evaluate their financial risk as a prerequisite to
large investments. Reliability research and development (R&D) is needed to build market confidence by improving
product reliability and by improving predictions of system availability, O&M cost, and system lifetime. Universities,
industry, National Labs, and other research entities can be most effective by working together and in complementary
ways. The Department of Energy supports a variety of research projects to improve PV-system reliability. These
projects and current reliability issues for each PV technology are surveyed.
