2013 PV Module Reliability Workshop: February 26-27, 2013, Golden, CO [Slides]
NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop (PVMRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology--both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace. NREL’s PVMRW is unique in its requirement that all participating companies share at least one presentation (either oral or poster). In most cases, participation from each company is limited to two people. These requirements greatly increase information sharing: If everyone shares a little information, everyone takes home a lot of information. In 2013, the PVMRW was designed to be a regional meeting of the International PV Module Quality Assurance Task Force, first of its kind for the Americas. This regional meeting also had substantial international participation. The workshop agenda mirrored the organization of the Task Force, with a session for each of Task Groups 2 through 5. Each Task Group presented a status report of their discussions and highlighted a small number of technical presentations describing studies related to that Task Group. In addition, the participants presented about 65 posters on topics directly or indirectly related to the work of the four Task Groups. Most of the participants shared their presentations for public posting; this document is a compilation of these. The success of the workshop is a direct result of the participants’ willingness to share their results.