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Featured in Mountains to climb – 05-2026

When glass gives way

Instances of cracks in PV module glass started appearing about five years ago. Spontaneous glass breakage is now one of the solar industry’s top issues, but manufacturing pressures and a lack of standards are hindering solutions.
Lior Kahana
By
Lior Kahana
Elizabeth Palmiotti uses a scattered light polariscope to measure the stress in PV glass. | Image: NLR

Solar glass is not supposed to break on its own – but increasingly, it does. Since about 2021, scientists, operators, and testing labs have been seeing glass breakage on solar modules with no apparent cause, such as impacts or extreme weather. This novel failure mode has been researched to some extent, but as its scientific …

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