Analysis and Failure Modes of Highly Degraded PV Modules Inspected during the 2018 All India Survey of PV Module Reliability

The analysis of degradation observed in some highly degraded photovoltaic (PV) modules inspected during the 2018 All India Survey of PV Module Reliability is presented. The influence of parameters like age, climatic zone of deployment, type of mounting, and grounding configuration on the performance of these degraded PV modules is presented in this paper with the aim of identifying the root causes. It was found that Potential Induced Degradation (PID), high Light Induced Degradation (LID) and / or Over rating, Bypass Diode failure in short circuit condition, Cell Cracks, and Hotspots were the major degradation modes in these PV modules.