Development of lightweight and flexible crystalline silicon solar cell modules with PET film cover for high reliability in high temperature and humidity conditions

Lightweight and flexible solar cell modules have great potential to be installed in locations with loading limitations and to expand the photovoltaics market. We used polyethylene terephthalate films instead of thick glass cover as front cover materials to fabricated lightweight solar cell modules with crystalline silicon solar cells. Because of the absence of a glass cover, the fabricated modules have flexible properties. The fabricated modules were subjected to accelerated degradation tests to evaluate their reliability. The test results showed that these lightweight and flexible modules exhibit high reliability under both high temperature and high humidity conditions.