If I don't see it, it's not there

摘要

"If I don't see it, it's not there." This rather puerile statement is very likely to apply to microcracks in the PV industry's beginning stages. Now the solar sector has significantly matured and has the tools to spot and solve this important problem. A microcrack is defined as a split in the crystalline structure of the cell material, which produces an electrical discontinuity, even when the physical integrity of the cell seems to be intact. From the beginning of the PV manufacturing industry, cell breakage and microcracks have been serious defects impacting the performance and reliability of solar PV modules. Despite the fact that microcracks have always been present in PV modules, they received little attention in the earlier stages of the module manufacturing industry. This is partly due to the fact that, initially, the industry used primarily monocrystalline technology cells which are less prone to cracking, and also due to the fact that suitable microcrack detection techniques have not always existed.