Toward the Development of A Desert PV Module for the Moroccan Climate

In recent years, PV module performance and durability researchers have focused on the PV aging mechanisms to save module life and reduce LCOE. We present preliminary work performed in the desert PV module project for the climate of Morocco as the base to guide the national market and contribute to the future of research and development applied to the industry. The purpose of this project is to develop a desert PV module adapted to arid and semi-arid climate of Morocco. Indeed, the started with an outdoor inspection of PV systems operating for more than three years in the climate of Morocco. For detailed inspection, we used advanced characterization techniques such as electroluminescence (EL), infrared (IR) imaging and I-V measurement. The general observation brings us to the severity of such climatic conditions on the durability of standard PV modules. This is noticeable not only at the level of the different aging mechanisms but also in terms of degradation rate values. The various degradation mechanisms are manifested by hotspots, cracks, encapsulants discolorations, potential induced degradation (PID), and delamination and snail tracks. In addition, degradation rates ranged from 2.02% up to 2.73%. Furthermore, we have proposed a new PV module design, based on the approach to mitigate the observed real aging mechanisms, the purpose of which is to save the life of the modules and improve their LCOE.