Laboratory experience with voltage breakdown

Voltage breakdown failures in photovoltaic module electrical insulations lead to loss of entire source circuits and require costly maintenance and replacement. Avoiding such catastrophes requires that modules be designed so that voltage breakdown either never occurs or occurs so rarely that it affects the least life cycle energy costs insignificantly. To achieve this desired balance of cost and reliability, the module design engineer must understand the failure mechanisms and use data on materials and failue rates to suppress or retard them. Recently obtained failure mechanism information, rate data and materials property data and a qualitative model of module failure prediction are presented.