Step-stress accelerated lifetime testing for photovoltaic devices and cells

Abstract

Estimating the lifetime and activation energy of photovoltaic (PV) cells, devices, and components is a key element to understanding lifecycle costs and improving designs of PV systems. Standard techniques for accelerated lifetime testing (ALT) plans are resource intensive in terms of the number of samples used and the strain placed on the PV testing facilities. In this paper, we introduce the step-stress accelerated lifetime testing (SSALT) method applied to a hypothetical PV test. We describe the SSALT method as a means for alleviating the resource burdens associated with the usual ALT setup. In the last section, we describe a testing plan for a future PV SSALT experiment.