Round-robin of damp heat tests using CIGS solar cells

Abstract

A round robin test was carried out in four PV laboratories to compare accelerated lifetime testing. Twenty commercial non-packaged CIGS solar cells of similar performance were spread and exposed to damp heat conditions (85 degrees C and 85% RH) for approximately 500 h. Their JV performance was monitored during the damp heat exposure. After the test, three of the labs reported average efficiency losses of 87 +/- 4%, 89 +/- 5% and 92 +/- 1%, which are close to median degradation rates found in literature. A higher degradation rate (efficiency loss of 97 +/- 3% after only 143 h) was observed in the fourth lab. This was attributed to a poorly designed ceiling window sealing, which caused liquid water pooling on the samples. After modifying the climate chamber, the experiment was repeated with similar samples and an efficiency loss of 72 +/- 6% after 475 h was observed for this lab.