Impact of transportation on silicon wafer-based photovoltaic modules

Before a photovoltaic (PV) module is integrated into a PV system, it has to be handled and transported. Therefore, it is imperative to test the PV module for typical load situations occurring during the transport. We measure the vibration acceleration of PV module corners during transport handling and transport for well-packed horizontal and vertical PV module stacks. We found a lower impact of vertical transports to cell cracks than for horizontal stacked modules. We found the highest random vibrations during a transport with a truck company with small trucks on bad roads. The reduced power spectral density (PSD) of this random vibration for horizontal transported modules is quite similar to the PSD spectrum suggested for testing of module packages in IEC62759-1. We use this standard PSD at various mean acceleration levels to test the PV modules on a shaker and compare the cell cracks with those occurring during an accompanied real transport. Besides the PSD spectrum, we also measure shocks during the transport. An analysis of different sine shocks shows that 60-cell modules are sensitive on shocks of more than 8ms shock length. We suggest a combined application of a shock and PSD test procedure to reproduce realistic transport conditions. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.