Long-Term Outdoor Power Generation Performance Evaluation of a Lightweight Polycarbonate BIPV Module with Integrated Steel Plate

Purpose: PV modules manufactured using lightweight materials such as polycarbonate are lighter than those manufactured using denser materials such as glass, which offers the advantage of reducing initial installation costs. However, these modules can be vulnerable to changes in the external environment, and their performance may deteriorate over time. There are still few installation cases and long-term measurement studies on polycarbonate modules, resulting in a lack of baseline data on module performance. Therefore, in this study, a long-term measurement experiment was conducted on the polycarbonate modules, and baseline performance data were derived from the measured data. Method: This study conducted long-term measurement experiments in an outdoor environment for the polycarbonate-covered modules and existing glass modules, evaluating the changes in the modules’ power generation performance in relation to temperature fluctuations and system operating time, based on data collected over 1 year and 6 months. Results: The deterioration in power generation performance due to increased operating time of the polycarbonate module was less than 1%, indicating no significant performance degradation. Furthermore, the efficiency distribution was comparable to that of the existing glass module.<br/>Additionally, the efficiency changes of the polycarbonate modules in response to temperature variations differed by less than 2% compared to the glass module, demonstrating similar performance to that of the existing module.