NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

IEC Quality Assurance Task Group 5: 

UV, Temperature, and Humidity

SOPHIA Workshop for PV-Module Reliability

David C. Miller* (*speaker, NREL, USA, David.Miller@nrel.gov),

Jasbir Bath (SEMA, USA, jasbir_bath@yahoo.com),

Michael Köhl (Fraunhofer ISE, Germany, michael.koehl@ise.fraunhofer.de),

Tsuyoshi Shioda (Mitsui Chemical Co., Japan, Tsuyoshi.Shioda@mitsui-chem.co.jp)

This presentation contains no proprietary information

Tuesday, 2014/6/03, 13:00-13:20 pm

SolarInfoCenter (SIC), Room 1G

Freiburg, Germany

NREL/PR-5200-62228
2

Topics Covered Today

• Motivation: Goals and activities for QA TG5

• Ea interlaboratory experiment (TG5 US)

Motivation and background

Some details of the Ea experiment:

Encapsulation discoloration

Encapsulation adhesion

Edge seal adhesion

• Timeline for TG5
3

Goal and Activities for QA TG5 (UV, T, RH)

• IEC qualification tests (61215, 61646, 61730-2) presently prescribe up to 137 days field 

equivalent (IEC 60904-3 AM 1.5) UV-B dose.

• Goal: develop UV- and temperature-facilitated test protocol(s) that may be used to 

compare PV materials, components, and modules relative to a field deployment.

Core Activities:

1: Consider weathering literature and climate meteorology (location-dependent information).

e.g., known benchmark locations...Miami, FL; Phoenix, AZ

2: Leverage existing standards, including other industries.

- summary exists from Kurt Scott et al.

3: Improve understanding of existing PV UV tests. 

4: Improve understanding of module durability.

 4-1 Collect information about observed failure modes.

e.g., the literature, site inspections

 4-2 Confirm appropriate models for aging.

5: Verify suitable UV sources. 

- summary of module capable equipment from David Burns et al.

6: Generate test procedure for UV-related accelerated service aging.

7: Perform laboratory verification of proposed test standard/failure mode.

- mini-module study (Japan), SoPhia round-robin (Europe), Ea interlaboratory study (US) 
4

Motivation for the Ea Interlaboratory Experiment (TG5 US)

• Knowing Ea (for rate of change in a characteristic) is critical to prescribing and 

interpreting a UV- and temperature-mediated test.

• Unfortunately, Ea is not known for the common UV-related PV degradation modes.

Critical unknowns

(Goals for the interlaboratory experiment):

1. Quantify Ea so that applied test conditions can be interpreted.

2. Provide a sense of the range of Ea that may be present by examining “known bad,” 

“known good,” and “intermediate” material formulations.

3. Determine if there is significant coupling between relevant aging factors, 

i.e., UV, temperature, and humidity.

What factors does TG5 need to consider?

4. Investigate the spectral requirements for light sources by comparing Ea for 

different sources, i.e., Xe-arc, UVA 340.

Is visible light required in addition to UV light?

The modified Arrhenius equation





 



 −





 





=

RT

n Ea

e

T

T k A

0
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Interlaboratory Participation Enables a Wider Range of Study

• Indoor aging is expensive. No one institution has all the resources to apply the 

complete set of factors we would like to examine. 

• Discoloration and adhesion will be studied in detail at (9) -volunteer- institutions 

using similar makes and models of instrument (e.g., Ci5000, QUV).

• This overcomes the difficulty of limited availability of aging equipment.

• Separate experiment at NIST (same EVAs) will examine action spectrum.

Summary of participating laboratories and test conditions

• A standard condition (60°C chamber ambient) allows a broad variety of other 

instruments (light sources) to be compared.

• Rate of degradation will be compared against field data to allow site-specific 

acceleration factors to be determined.

• Outdoor data will verify the validity of the test.
6

Materials Used in the Ea Experiment

• Discoloration has been studied in the literature:

We have a sense of the general rate of degradation.

We have a sense of the sorts of formulations used (historical and contemporary).

We have prescribed known bad and known improved formulations of EVA.

A TPU formulation is chosen as a known bad material.

•XXX

•XXX

Encapsulation materials being compared in the transmittance (discoloration) experiment.

The encapsulation adhesion experiment examines Material B only.

• Degradation of adhesion is not well known for PV encapsulation or edge seals.

First study a limited set of materials to get a sense of the degradation rate and 

relative importance of factors (UV, T, %RH).

(1) EVA formulation used to study encapsulation adhesion.

(2) Edge-seal formulations used to study edge-seal adhesion.
7

Details of the Ea Methods and Experiment: Encapsulation Transmittance Test

• Coupon specimens will be measured using a spectrophotometer 

(with integrating sphere)

• Measure at specimen center (anaerobic, no O2) and edge (aerobic)

• Analyze: solar-weighted transmittance, yellowness index, and UV cut-off 

wavelength. 

Transmittance will be examined 

using silica/polymer/silica samples.

User summary:

• Geometry: glass/polymer/glass (3.2 mm/0.5 mm/3.2 mm)

• Size: 2” x 2”

• Quantity: 3 replicates of 6 materials (pre-conditioned), and 1 reference (not pre-conditioned)

• Aging: 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, 150, 180 cumulative days (indoors)

or 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years (outdoors)

• Measurements (non-destructive): repeatedly age and measure at each laboratory/test site

Specimen in sample holder for 

indoor aging at NREL.

Specimens on outdoor rack, aging 

in Golden, CO at NREL.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Hemispherical transmittance {%}

Wavelength {nm}

Th vs. Wavelength, material averages, unaged

EVA A

EVA B

EVA C

EVA D

EVA E

TPU

Td_silica

Solite
8

Details of the Ea Methods and Experiment: Encapsulation CST Adhesion Test

User summary:

• Geometry: glass/polymer/glass (3.2 mm/0.5 mm/3.2 mm)

• Size: 3” x 3”

• Quantity: 10 replicates of 1 material (pre-conditioned), 

plus 5 extras (not pre-conditioned)

• Aging: 15, 30, 45, 90, and 180 cumulative days (indoors), 

or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years (outdoors)

• Remove 2 coupons at each increment

• Measurements(destructive): age at each laboratory/test site,

then sent to NREL for measurement

The CST will be used to examine 

the attachment of EVA.

Method from: Chapuis et al., 

PIP, 22 (4), 2014, pp.405–41. 

(EPFL)

• 25 mm square specimens (diced, after aging) examined using loadframe.

• Pristine edge quality is critical. Dice using abrasive water jet cutter.

Sample holder configuration 

for indoor aging at NREL.

Specimens on outdoor rack, 

aging in Golden, CO at NREL.
9

• Lap shear is the standard test method for RTI and other certification protocols.

• Edge quality (handling of the glass specimens) is not as critical here. 

Testing Summary:

• Geometry: glass/polymer/glass (3.2 mm/0.5 mm/3.2 mm). 25 mm X 25mm test area.

• Quantity: 10 replicates of 2 test materials

• Aging: 15, 30, 45, 90, and 180 cumulative days (indoors), 

 or 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years (outdoors) 

• Remove 2 coupons of each material at each increment

• Measurements (destructive): aged at each laboratory/test site, 

then sent to NREL for measurement

• Use a displacement rate of 10 mm⋅min-1. Record σmax, εmax, and failure mode.

Specimens on outdoor rack, aging in Golden, CO at NREL.

Details of the Ea Methods and Experiment: Edge Seal Lap Shear Adhesion Test
10

A DCB wedge test will be used to examine the attachment of edge seals.

Marceau et al., Adhesives Age, 1977, 28-34.

Also: ISO 10354, ASTM D3762.

User summary:

• Geometry: glass/polymer/glass (3.2 mm/0.5 mm/3.2 mm)

• Size: 1” x 9”

• Quantity: 2 replicates of 2 test materials

• Aging: 15, 30, 45, 90, and 180 cumulative days (indoors) 

or 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years (outdoors)

• Measurements (semi-destructive): aged and measured at each laboratory/test site

• Fracture mechanics test for interfacial adhesion (J⋅m-2),

not an attachment strength test (N⋅m-2 or N⋅m-1) .

• Specimens will be examined visually and using a micrometer.

G =

3Et3h2

16a4

G = Fracture Energy

Details of the Ea Methods and Experiment: Edge Seal Wedge Adhesion Test
11

Timeline and Goals for TG5

• NREL specimens are presently at 15 days (Ci5000) and 60 days (UV suitcase).

• Other institutions (including Fraunhofer) are beginning the experiment.

• Results will be used to assign t, T, %RH for a comparative UV test.
12

Conclusions/Goals (for the Ea Experiment)

•We have initiated a large interlaboratory experiment 

investigating the degradation kinetics (Ea) of 

encapsulation and edge-seal materials.

• We will investigate transmittance and adhesion as a 

function of exposure to heat, humidity, light, and light 

source.

• Hundreds of test samples were made and shared with 

multiple collaborators in the PV industry.

• The results of these experiments will enable the 

determination of acceleration factors facilitating the 

design of accelerated stress tests, with field-performance 

prediction capability.
13

Acknowledgements

• There has been fantastic participation in TG5. 

Thank you to the many participants for their ongoing support! 

• If interested in TG5 or the experiments, please contact the 

corresponding regional TG5 leader. (See title slide)

• Let the speaker know if you are interested in any of the related 

material standards (encapsulation transmittance, encapsulation 

adhesion, edge-seal attachment).

NREL STM campus, Dennis Schroeder

This work was supported by the U.S. 

Department of Energy under Contract 

No. DE-AC36-08-GO28308 with the 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
14

Additional Slides (for reference)
15

Use of REDCap Database for Transmittance Data

• LOTS of transmittance data will be generated for the experiment. 

• Case Western Reserve University volunteered the REDcap database to TG5. 

• REDCap comes from the medical (research) industry.

Benefits: Ensures designed experiments, high data capacity, simultaneous user 

access, automated data quality verification.

• REDCap allows users to view and analyze results in real-time.

Home screen for https://dcru.case.edu/redcap

Transmittance results will be uploaded to 

REDCap using an Excel template file.
16

Moisture Conditioning of Specimens

• Water content is a critical factor in the experiment.

• A set of 3 different conditions were applied to render an internal 

water content (ppm) similar to that in the aging chamber.

• Specimens were pre-conditioned for 1 month prior to 

distribution.

• Specimens need to be maintained with a water content during 

intermission (between aging and measurement).

Matrix for the pre-conditioning of samples for the TG5 experiment.
17

We Need Estimates of the Sample Temperature

• In weathering instruments, the sample is heated above the air 

temperature.

• We are sending thermocouple-equipped samples to the labs to 

evaluate the heating of their particular instruments.

• Depending on the sample and the chamber, they may be between 

2°C and 18°C above the air temperature.

0

5

10

15

20

25

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Sample T-Ambient (°C)

Ambient Temperature Setpoint (°C)

15295-Silica #1

15295-Silica #2

A9918 Starphire #1

A9918 Starphire #2

15295 Starphire #1

15295 Starphire #2

15295 Window Glass #1

15295 Window Glass #2

15295 Window Glass #3