Solar PV technology continues to innovate and evolve at a rapid pace. Testing the modules is essential for predicting durability and future performance. But that inevitably means past experience is not a good predictor of the behaviour of the new materials and configurations. Sara Fall and Harrison Dreves at NREL explain how the Durable Module Materials (DuraMAT) Consortium has set up sophisticated testing and data gathering to use the … [Read more...]
Solar PV technology improvements are rapid. But how do you test the long-term reliability of the new designs?
Solar PV module technology moves fast, and is delivering improvements continuously. So fast that it’s no trivial matter to judge the long-term reliability of the changes. It’s a crucial issue as modules, once deployed, are expected to deliver results over lifetimes that span decades. Sara Fall and Jarett Zuboy at NREL describes a process designed to identify and address potential reliability problems quickly, before they are observed in the … [Read more...]
U.S. Residential Distributed Solar: still getting cheaper, installation and permitting too, more batteries
John Rogers at UCS reviews the new and comprehensive “Tracking the Sun” report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which covers both residential and non-residential “grid-connected, distributed” solar PV systems in the U.S. There has been clear progress across the board, including PV module efficiency, system costs, installation and permitting, and the uptake of batteries. For example, median efficiency for modules in residential systems … [Read more...]
What’s best? Building Solar panels that last 30 years, or are short-lived easy-to-recycle and upgrade
The good news is that PV modules last so long – 30 years – that we don’t have to worry about recycling for a while. The bad news is that means we’re not thinking about the alternative pathway of deliberately building modules that last only a few years yet can be easily recycled and improved. Harrison Dreves at NREL describes the data-gathering and creation of a modelling tool that quantifies the flow of materials, energy, and carbon in the PV … [Read more...]
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