Can photovoltaic tempered glass be replaced

Testing of experimental glass repair technique for glass-glass PV modules. After damp-heat test repaired modules showed no signs of water ingress. Economic and ecological feasibility shown using Cost Priority Number metric. Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is a crucial supply technology in the envisioned renewable energy system.

The encapsulated glass used in solar photovoltaic modules (or custom solar panels), the current mainstream products are low-iron tempered embossed glass, the solar cell module has high requirements for the transmittance of tempered glass, which must be greater than 91.6%, and has a higher reflection for infrared light greater than 1200 nm. rate.

The replacement of the back sheet layer with a glass panel drastically reduces the proneness to water penetration. Ingress of water (vapor) at glass-glass PV modules is negligible and restricted to the edge area only [ 18 ].

In glass-glass PV modules the interlayer is often Polyolefin Elastomer (POE) encapsulant. Subsequent weathering of the encapsulant, such as the ingress of moisture, may decrease the strength of defected glass PV modules. This will reduce the lifetime of the module and cause corrosion of internal components [ 20 ].

Especially since glass defects arise more frequently at glass-glass PV modules [ 12, 13 ]. Glass defects can disrupt the insulation of the encapsulant layer and PV cells, which can lead to ingress of water. This affects the reliability of the PV modules and might cause safety and/or performance issues [ 11 ].

The as-received glass-glass PV modules did not show any visible deficiencies and were used as reference during the test series. After the initial tests, the glass defect PV modules were divided into two subgroups: repaired specimen and non-repaired specimen.