Photovoltaic glass integrity

Unfortunately, glass-glass PV modules are, similar to regular PV modules, subject to early life failures. A failure of growing concern are defects in the glass layer (s) of PV modules. The scale of decommissioned PV modules with glass defects will increase with the development of solar PV energy [ 7 ].

Glass defects impact the economic performance of a PV system in multiple ways. The most obvious effect is the potential (in)direct performance loss of PV modules, which results in reduced economic revenues. Secondly, PV modules that suffer from glass defects may no longer meet safety requirements, therefore these modules are replaced.

However, glass defects do not directly imply that PV modules endure internal damage nor that PV modules cannot continue to operate with minimal microcracks. Thus far, glass defects have been regarded as a failure beyond repair and no noticeable attempt has been made to develop reparation methods.

2.2. Glass characteristics Glass-glass PV modules generally use 2–3 mm thick glass layers, since thicker glass layers negatively impact the module's weight and costs, while trends are to reduce glass thickness to below 2 mm [ 10 ].

While there are no technical disadvantages to glass-glass PV modules [ 10, 19 ], in general glass-glass PV designs are more expensive than regular GBS modules due to the use of an additional costly glass layer and the increased weight that may lead to higher costs for support structures.

Glass-glass PV modules currently account for about 15% market share in the PV industry. Nonetheless, these glass-glass designs are predicted to represent up to 50% of the PV market in 2030 [ 10 ]. Glass-glass PV modules have a more durable design and higher mechanical strength [ 11 ].