Comparative Analysis of Hotspot Stress Endurance in Pristine and Thermal Cycled Prestressed Glass–Glass Photovoltaic Modules

Hotspots pose a significant long-term reliability challenge in photovoltaic (PV) modules that can have detrimental impact on the efficiency, safety, and financial viability of PV system. This paper aims to evaluate endurance hotspot stress pristine prestressed glass–glass (GG) modules. The accelerated prestressing was conducted for 600 thermal cycles (TC600) represent decades field exposure. GG are quickly becoming an alternative traditional glass–backsheet (GB) been industry standard. Unlike other conventional studies subject only stress, this evaluates performance accelerated/simulated field-aged module (using TC600) module. Pre- post-characterizations were performed before after each test determine changes electrical observe any defects During test, approximately 200 °C maximum cell temperature observed with shading 25% (the worst-case ratio). After electroluminescence imaging indicated most cells exhibited severe damage whereas no evident where degraded 8.2% 1.5% power. These findings critical industry, considering bifacial will dominate market.