Cyclic Mechanical Loading of Solar Panels – A Field Experiment

Cracks were created in a PV module by static mechanical loading before installation in the field to quantify the power degradation due to cracks propagating and opening because of cyclic wind loading over a large number of cycles. The magnitude and frequency of the displacement at the center of a PV module were monitored during a convenient wind-loading event (nearby passing hurricane Irma). Despite circumstances being significantly different from cyclic loading conditions of the IEC 61215 and IEC 62782 standards, we observed evidence of cracks opening. Furthermore, we attempted to reproduce this result in the laboratory using the LoadSpot tool on similarly prepared modules (Static mechanical loading at 2400Pa followed by 50 Thermal Cycles or TC50 and 10 Humidity-Freeze cycles or HF10). We found a comparable trend in power degradation in the laboratory corresponding to approximately 2% power loss over 10,000 cycles.