Investigation on the impact of macro- and micro-climate on the potential induced degradation

The climatic conditions play an important role for a degradation mechanism of photovoltaic modules, known as potential induced degradation (PID). The influence of ambient humidity, precipitation and temperature on the leakage current has been investigated with high voltage stress in two different climate regions. This work focusses on one of them (Freiburg, Germany) It was found out, that for this test sit, rain seems to be a serious problem as a conductive layer is established that leads to a high leakage current. A temperature dependency such as found in indoor test was found as well.