Analysis of different microcracks shapes and the effect of each shape on performance of PV modules

Abstract

Photovoltaic solar panels became the world's largest distributed Renewable technology through its easy manufacturing and installation, moreover, the cost of photovoltaic panels falls continuously which provided a safe environment to investors to invest in such systems. The Photovoltaic solar panel made from different layers starting from anti reflected coated glass layer, encapsulation material, solar cells matrix another encapsulant layer and back sheet. This structure does not provide the needed protection to the solar cells encapsulated inside and there will be a possibility of microcracks happen at different stages of the project life cycle starting from the production, transportation, installation, cleaning and operation, and maintenance stage. Through this research, modules from different projects were tested to see the microcracks and their effect. Results show that those cracks can cause a power drop up to 3.21% depending on the type of the module. Furthermore, microcracks are classified as minor and major ones based on their shape, dendritic and vertical shapes are resulted to be the most severe ones.