Novel accelerated testing method for III-V concentrator solar cells

Abstract

Accelerated testing is a necessary tool in order to demonstrate the reliability of concentration photovoltaic solar cells, devices which is expected to be working not less than 25 years. Many problems arise when implementing high temperature accelerated testing in this kind of solar cells, because the high light irradiation level, at which they work, is very difficult to achieve inside a climatic chamber. This paper presents a novel accelerated testing method for concentrator solar cells, under simulated electrical working conditions (i.e. forward biasing the solar cells at the equivalent current they would handle at 700 suns), that overcomes some of the limitations found in test these devices inside the chamber. The tracked power of the solar cells to 700×, experiences a degradation of 1.69% after 4232 h, in the 130 °C test, and of 2.20% after 2000 h in the 150 °C one. An additional test has been carried out at 150 °C, increasing the current to that equivalent to 1050 suns. This last test shows a power degradation of 4% for the same time.