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Solar Operations Excellence
170 members β’ Free
7 contributions to Solar Operations Excellence
5d β’Β
Hail Resistance - a bit of controversy
I would like to offer you 2 points of view on hail resistance which I am seeing in my social bubble. 1. It shall be within the interest of every module maker to develop and design the modules with an improved hail resistance (resisting bigger hail size without damage), as the "hail showers" are more and more frequent even in regions where it was not very usual. The massive hail damage can happen nearly everywhere, therefore, never ending robustness improvements shall be part of the strategy of each module maker. 2. The fact that hail does not break the glass, but very likely breaks the cells is leading to situations that the asset owners have damaged plant, but proving it to the insurance company gets really expensive (EL screening). Insurance companies are reluctant to cover the damages, if the glass is not broken. For the sake of clarity, it would be the best, if the glass breaks as a matter of evidence. Then the whole insurance claim process goes much faster and the countermeasures can be done fast, cheap and easy. I wonder, which of those 2 ways is more resonating with you and why.
2 likes β’ 4d
An exciting discussion! There is certainly a big difference between glass/glass and glass/film modules. I agree that the waver can be damaged in glass/film modules. With glass/glass modules, I would assume that the glass would break before the wafer was damaged. Glass breakage, especially on the back of glass/glass modules, is another major issue in the industry.
0 likes β’ 2d
@Jan Mastny from a purely physical point of view, I would say that the cell is in a neutral phase and is therefore not subjected to any stress. In other words, all the energy should be dissipated through the bending or stretching of the glass, and the cell should not be subjected to any stress.
10d β’Β
Repowering as a Growth Driver β Are You Ready?
Many PV systems are aging: declining performance, new technical requirements, and higher yield potential. Repoweringis becoming increasingly relevant β and O&M can play a key role in driving it. Questions: βͺ Are you already using your monitoring and service data to identify repowering opportunities? βͺ What challenges do you face in practice? βͺ Will repowering become a standard part of your service portfolio? Looking forward to your perspectives!
1 like β’ 9d
@Marian Dor good point, that definitely varies from country to country! Which countries are you referring to? In Germany, there are regulations governing repowering subsidies that regulate feed-in tariffs.
2 likes β’ 8d
@CΔlin Sas @Jan Mastny @Marian Dor Would it be helpful to have a module with old dimensions but new cell technology?
9d β’Β
Recycle? Upcycle? What are the options?
@Stefan Wippich mentioned the urgency for considering repowering to become a daily bread for many of us. My thoughts are going a step further though. The growth of obsolete modules and other PV equipment will be as exponential as the industry itself. Despite I see more and more talks and initiatives related to this topic, I canΒ΄t resist to think about what the future will be like in 2030 and later on. I donΒ΄t want to be the messenger of bad news. However! It might happen that we will be remembering the troubles with PET bottles with nostalgia, in comparison with the PV module disposal. I am curious about your opinions.
2 likes β’ 9d
@Jan Mastny yes, silver is an important point. However, I don't believe that silver is the decisive factor in the recycling process. The important thing will be to obtain the wafers (in a cost-effective manner) and resell them as raw material. In my opinion, silver will only be extracted in the next step of the process. We are currently seeing various recycling technologies in the field. These range from shredders and hot knife methods to delaminators. All of them have their place, and it will only become clear in the next few years which is the most economical method. We will probably also see differences here between module collections from municipal waste and large quantities from solar parks.
1 like β’ 8d
@Jan Mastny That's exactly what I mean. The volume flows required for further processing determine the technology. But this demand for material has yet to be created. Flaxress from Dresden (Germany) can extract materials cleanly and offer cells without foil and glass components. But the process is more complex than shredding.
25d β’Β
ABB rack with transformer wanted!
Hi, our cooperation partner Hilker Solar from Germany is looking for a new or used ABB rack with transformer. For example, an ABB PVI-55, PVI-110, PVI-165, or PVI-220... the device can also be damaged (except for the transformer, which is needed). Plug-in units are not needed. Does anyone have any ideas or a device?
1 like β’ 23d
@Andreas Iliou π€·ββοΈ
2 likes β’ 22d
@Alexandru Minzat very cool, if you hear anything, I'd appreciate your feedback.
1 like β’ 25d
Ask Dennis Logemann from Hilker d.logemann@hilker-repair.de
1-7 of 7
@stefan-wippich-1926
In the PV industry since 2003 and interested in quality π
With SecondSol, we are focusing on redesigning spare parts supply in the PV industry π€
Active 1d ago
Joined Nov 7, 2025
Berlin
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