Thermo-mechanical finite element simulation of a sub-cell utilising wire interconnection

Abstract

Reliability has become increasingly important in the photovoltaic (PV) industry, mainly since it has a big influence on the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) while it embodies a lot of the risks when investing in renewable energy [1]. However, determining lifetime of a module technology is very time consuming and almost never conclusive. This is especially the case when working with novel interconnection technologies [2]. To reduce the experimental overhead when studying reliability, a finite element (FE) model containing the components most prone to failure is suggested. All assumptions used in the model must be verified by measurements.