ARIA: Accelerated reliability improvement AC-modules

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 96.0293

Key words (English)

AC-modules; reliability; testing

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: JOR3-CT97-0122

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 5.1 Nonnuclear energies

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Joint Research Centre, ISPRA, ECN (NL), Mastervolt Solar (NL), Anit photovoltaici sa (I)

Abstract (English)

The goal of this project is to Improve the reliability of the AC-module by Improving the reliability of both inverter and module. aiming at a lifetime expectancy figure of at least 10 years.

The first objective is the determination and improvement of the reliability and operational life-time of AC-module inverters. This will be done by (electrical) immunity tests and by environmental stress tests in a climatic chamber. These tests will be done to determine the operational lifetime and the most frequently occurring failure mechanisms in the inverter. The results from these tests will be used to make an improved inverter design for AC-modules.

The second objective is the development of a hot-spot detector to prevent large scale modules (>100W) from hot-spots without the use of by-pass diodes. Instead of limiting the voltage across a number of cells, as done with the bypass diode, the new method limits the current through the solarcells.

Prototypes of the voltage comparison method have been built and included in the 200W modulintegrated solarinverter Solcolino. The prototypes have successfully been tested at the Engineering School in Winterthur. The temperature sensitive method has been skipped due to technical and cost reasons. Tests in the Netherlands on the AC-Module equipped with the Solcolino inverter gained also positive results.

The project has been carried out with partners from the Netherlands and Italy and will be finalised by the end of the year.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 96.0293