Effect of humidity and temperature on the potential-induced degradation

Abstract

This paper focusses on the physical conditions for a degradation mechanism of photovoltaic modules, known as potential-induced degradation. The analysis was made on several levels. At first, the influence of humidity and temperature on the potential-induced leakage current has been investigated, the second step consists of an accelerated test scheme in a climatic chamber and the third one is outdoor exposure with high voltage stress in two different climate regions. The humidity has a huge impact on the leakage current. Therefore, a test in the climate chamber accelerates the stress found in the field of some orders of magnitude. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.