Abstract

Moisture is a crucial factor for the degradation of PV modules. It has been linked to various degradation modes. The consequences range between minor power losses in the best cases, and severe yield losses and safety issues in the worst cases. The amount of water available to enter the modules and the temperature (T), determining the speed of the diffusion process, varies extensively between different climates. However, measurements in the field inside PV modules are a non-trivial task. Only recently novel measurement techniques based on digital miniature T and relative humidity (RH) sensors were developed to enable such an evaluation. This work presents the first comparison of moisture ingress in various climate zones based on in-situ measurements.