ASTM WK25362 Addresses Durability, Functional Service Life of Photovoltaic Modules
October 26, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The standard is being developed by Subcommittee E44.09 on Photovoltaic Electric Power Conversion, which is under the jurisdiction of Committee E44 on Solar, Geothermal and Other Alternative Energy Sources.
"While a module may meet the initial qualification requirements, this does not provide sufficient information to indicate that the same module will function reliably in the long term," said David Burns, an E44 member.
"The intent of ASTM WK25362 is to recommend procedures for conducting accelerated life testing of photovoltaic [PV] modules to provide a common ground for manufacturers and users to assess durability and estimate functional service life."
The results of test protocols described in ASTM WK25362 will help designers and manufacturers identify and quantify the failure mechanisms that can limit the service life of PV modules, as well as provide methods to evaluate the rate of performance degradation, according to ASTM International.
"When approved, the proposed standard should serve as a technical framework for evaluating improvements to increase the long-term performance of PV modules," Burns said. "The driving issue behind ASTM WK25362 is how to evaluate whether a PV module will function for an acceptable amount of time. To that end, it could also potentially be used to corroborate claims of warrantable lifetime."
In addition, ASTM WK25362 is designed to educate users including distributors, installers and residential owners on PV property-performance-cost relationships, such as electrical output vs. environmental variables, corrective and preventative maintenance and design factors that influence operational reliability.
Among the potential users of ASTM WK25362 are PV module and component designers and manufacturers, testing and certification laboratories, government laboratories, commercial PV users and solar energy consumer advocate groups.
To help develop ASTM WK25362, Committee E44 needs people with experience in reliability monitoring, service life prediction methodology, performance measuring, module construction, materials and associated electrical components.
Source: ASTM International.