History of accelerated and qualification testing of terrestrial photovoltaic modules: A literature review

We review published literature from 1975 to the present for accelerated stress testing of flat‐plate terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) modules. An important facet of this subject is the standard module test sequences that have been adopted by national and international standards organizations, especially those of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The intent and history of these qualification tests, provided in this review, shows that standard module qualification test results cannot be used to obtain or infer a product lifetime. Closely related subjects also discussed include: other limitations of qualification testing, definitions of module lifetime, module product certification, and accelerated life testing. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper documents the published history in 177 references of more than 30 years of accelerated stress testing of PV modules. An important part of the history has been the development of standardized sequences such as the one outlined in this figure, adapted from International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 61215. Contrary to popular beliefs and desires, however, PV modules cannot be assigned a numerical lifetime as a result of passing these test sequences.