Featured in Winter Edition – Gold standard – 12-2023

Temper tantrum

Reports of broken module glass with no obvious cause have begun to crop up at large PV projects. Module design, glass manufacturing, and interactions in the field between modules and trackers are at play and a clear solution has yet to emerge. Early signs suggest an update to certification standards may be needed, as industry stakeholders tell Mark Hutchins.

By

Mark Hutchins

05 Dec 2023

Researchers are developing methods to look more closely at defects in module glass and the heat-strengthening processes manufacturers use when full tempering cannot be achieved. | Photo: PVEL

A worrying trend is emerging in large-scale PV as project owners report high levels of broken module glass. Few of them are willing to share details from specific projects at this stage but quality experts say reports have been received relating to hundreds of megawatts of installed PV generation capacity. And the problem could be …

This article is part of pv+

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