Why Do Solar Panels Degrade Over Time

Light induced degradation or lid affects most solar panels and reduces their efficiency by 1 3 during the first few hours they are exposed to sunlight.

Why do solar panels degrade over time.

A variety of external factors like weather wear down on the panels and have a negative impact on their ability to produce electricity. Internal resistance of the cell can increase due to infiltration of contaminants usually water vapor when the encapsulating. Often this period is measured against the products lifetime. In the years since this 2012 study was conducted more efficient technologies have been developed and many newer panels have just a 0 5 percent yearly decline in energy.

It s because they degrade rapidly in their first few hours. For example solarcity the largest residential solar installer in the u s guarantees that its panel efficiency won t degrade below an 80 efficiency rating over a 20 year power purchase. Solar panel degradation rates are constantly improving as solar panel technology gets better over the years and degradation rates below 1 are common throughout the industry. All solar panels slowly degrade over time which means they re producing less electricity from the same amount of sunlight.

Those panels could retain 96 of their production capabilities after 20 years. For most tier 1 solar panels the degradation rate is 30 meaning that each year the panels performance is reduced by 30. Why do they degrade. Solar panel degradation and failure is not a clear cut situation kurtz said.

Over 25 years that adds up to a total of 6 96 meaning your panels will operate at 93 04 of their original capacity in 2045. What exactly is reducing their efficiency. The reason why they allow for extra degradation early on is not because panels degrade rapidly in their first year. It does because yearly degradation compounds over time.

Degradation rates are used in solar site assessments in order to estimate the energy production over the life of a system and to calculate the payback period and return on investment. Solar panel degradation refers to when a solar panel loses its power output over time. This link outlines several modes of solar panel degradation and this report by the national renewable energy lab is a very detailed review of studies on solar panel degradation worldwide. There are lots of different reasons why they degrade and why they fail kurtz said module manufacturers are looking into every piece of the solar panel puzzle all the way down to the encapsulants and adhesion materials to try to slow degradation rates.

How and why does this happen.