A new non destructive technique has been proposed by researchers who say identifying early stage discoloration in eva encapsulants can help detect degradation in solar panels before power output is affected.
Eva discoloration solar panels.
In the solar industry the most common encapsulation is with cross linkable ethylene vinyl acetate eva.
Browning in pv modules can induce a power loss by up to 0 5 year.
Degradation and discoloration mechanisms and formulation modifications for improved photostability f.
What are ethylene vinyl acetate eva films.
However discolored eva encapsulant is reported to cause a loss of light transmission to the solar cells leading to loss in power production by up to 0 5 a year by average 28 or up to 1 a year in subtropical climates 160 and this loss can be as high as.
Very much what appears to be a visual failure discolouration or browning occurs when there is a yellow or brown discolouration of the ethyl vinyl acetate eva a result of two main causes.
Discoloration is rarely observed in the eva between neighboring solar cells.
Bad effects of eva browning.
For glass glass module constructions this eva discoloration is more spatially uniform.
The eva is used to bond the silicon solar cells to the front glass and backing sheet and to protect the photovoltaic materials from the environment and mechanical damage.
We ll get to that part.
Let s try to make it as simple as possible.
Solar panel discolouration is an uncontrolled chemical reaction amongst materials.
Solar eva had one job but failed miserably.
Ethylene vinyl acetate eva encapsulants for photovoltaic modules.
A new non destructive method has been proposed by researchers in india who say identifying early stage discoloration in eva encapsulants can help detect degradation in solar panels before power.
There are plenty of studies online that have fully confirmed that the acetic acid formation is the specific root cause for the discoloration of the eva encapsulate.
Eva is the abbreviation for ethylene vinyl acetate.
Essentially an acetic acid formation is the problem but not too blame.
Pern center for performance engineering and reliability national renewable energy laboratory nrel 1617 cole blvd golden colorado 80401 usa.
The iit bombay group used an ultraviolet accelerated aging test during 34 days on three encapsulant samples.
To investigate the eva encapsulant photobleaching and discoloration solar cell laminates having different eva films uv transparent t uv cut c and combination of the two tc were tested.
The thermal ageing of an ethylene vinyl acetate eva polymer used as an adhesive and encapsulant in a photovoltaic module has been investigated.
