What are the common problems with solar panel street lights?

Solar Panel Street Lights hot spot problem

a. Cause

During the use of solar street lights, some dust, leaves and other debris will inevitably fall on the panel, causing local shadows on the panel. These local shadows will cause the current and voltage of some battery cells in the panel to drop. Changes will result in local heating, and over time some obvious burnt hot spots will appear.

b. cause consequences

When the hot spot effect occurs in a solar panel, reaching a certain level, it will melt the welding points of the panel components, destroy the grid lines, and slowly damage the entire panel component. This will not only seriously affect the lighting system, but also at least reduced to 10% of its lifespan.

c. How to avoid

In the early design, when the single cells of the panel are connected in series, a diode is connected in parallel, which plays a good voltage dividing role and can effectively prevent the hot spot effect of the solar panel; in addition, in the later stage, When installing, be careful not to install it in a sheltered place. No obstruction at all is allowed, and pay attention to regularly cleaning away dust and other debris.

Solar Panel Street Lights Hidden crack problem

a. Cause

Solar panel street lights are made of crystalline silicon. Due to the characteristics of its crystal structure, it is easy to crack. There are essentially two reasons for the crack problem, one is mechanical stress and the other is thermal stress. , initially there will only be some small cracks in the battery cells, which are difficult to detect with the naked eye, but after a long time, they will develop into fragments and become visible to the naked eye.

b. cause consequences

When cracks cause the grid lines to become thicker, the collected current will not be output normally. The result will be partial or even complete failure of the cells, which will have a great impact on the power output of the solar street lights, causing improper attenuation, and thus Affecting its lifespan, at the same time, the crack problem of the battery panel continues to expand under mechanical load, which may also lead to open circuit damage, which will also cause a hot spot effect.

c. How to avoid

During the production, transportation, installation and maintenance of battery panels, we must fully consider its easy rupture characteristics, avoid impact or extrusion of hard objects, and reduce the possibility of component cracks.

Solar Panel Street Lights Snail pattern problem

a. Cause

Solar panel street lights often have some black or white linear patterns that look like traces of snails crawling across them, which is called snail pattern. This is often caused by a crack in a battery component, and moisture penetrates into the crack through the resin backsheet and packaging material. This moisture will react with the silver of the finger-shaped electrode in the battery, causing the diffusion of silver ions.

At this time, after exposure to sunlight, silver ions react chemically with other substances to generate silver oxide and silver sulfide, and then the snail patterns we see will be formed along the cracks, which are actually photovoltaic circles.

b. cause consequences

In fact, the snail pattern appears with the problem of cracks in the battery cells, so the consequences are the same. First, the aesthetics is greatly compromised. Secondly, when the cracks reach 8% of the battery surface area, it will damage the battery. The board itself causes obvious adverse effects, reaching 12% of the surface area, and the performance of the battery board will decrease linearly, resulting in the attenuation of the power and life of the battery board.

c. How to avoid

During the production, transportation, installation and maintenance of battery panels, try to avoid impact or extrusion. Some manufacturers will use glass packaging to replace the backplane during production, or add a barrier layer of resin to prevent moisture from penetrating. The back panel can reduce the occurrence of snail lines to a certain extent, but this time it will increase the cost.

In fact, as far as the latter two are concerned, the area where the problem occurs is not large. Generally speaking, it will not have a big impact on the overall performance of the solar panel, so there is no need to worry too much about this small problem. Of course, if it occurs If the area of cracks or snail marks is large, it is better to replace a battery panel in advance.