IEA PVPS Task 13: Reliability and Performance of Photovoltaic Systems (Working period 2022 - 2023)

Electrical energy from photovoltaics is playing an increasingly important role in the global energy supply. Massive cost reductions and high potential led to the capacity of globally installed PV exceeding 1 terawatt in the second quarter of 2022. Although the majority of new installations in 2023 were in the Asia-Pacific region (a. 60%), there are also ambitious plans for Europe and Austria to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy technologies and PV in particular. More than 1 GW of PV has been installed in Austria every year since 2022. By the end of 2023, the cumulative installed capacity was more than 6 GW, covering more than 10% of electricity demand.

Due to the rapid market growth - more than 400 GW of new PV capacity was installed in 2023 - new production capacities for photovoltaic components are also being built on an ongoing basis. New processes and materials that promise to reduce costs and/or increase efficiency and performance are therefore being introduced to the market very quickly and in large quantities. Task 13 sees it as its task to accompany these transformation processes by collecting and processing information on the performance and reliability of PV systems and their components, as well as developing and providing tools to enable such information to be compared globally for different areas of application and technologies.

The substantive work is divided into three subtasks, whereby the Austrian partners PCCL, AIT and OFI will be involved in all subtasks and in a large part of the activities:

• ST 1: New PV concepts at material, component and module level with activities on degradation, repair and reuse, adaptation of module tests to new technologies and applications, photovoltaics and storage.
• ST 2: PV performance and durability in special applications with activities on floating and AgriPV systems and tracking bifacial systems, systems with module electronics, and digital models of PV systems
• ST 3: Technical-economic performance indicators to compare how well different technologies and system concepts cope with weather extremes and climatic conditions, and what economic advantages and disadvantages are associated with them. The aim is to evaluate existing indicators and investigate how decisions in the (project) development process can be optimally designed to minimize risks.
• ST 4: Dissemination bundles these activities by preparing Task Reports on the contents of the Subtask activities, contributing conference papers, organizing parallel events at conferences and workshops following the Task meetings, and holding webinars.

Link to the task reports on the international website

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany (Task lead), Israel, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom and the United States of America

Project lead

Gernot Oreski, Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH (PCCL)
A-8700 Leoben
Roseggerstr. 12
Tel.: +43 664 88679331
E-Mail: Gernot.oreski@pccl.at

Project partners

Karl A. Berger
Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (AIT)
A-1210 Vienna
Giefingg. 2
Tel.: +43 664 8251033
E-Mail: karl.berger@ait.ac.at

Gabriele C. Eder
Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology (OFI)
A-1030 Vienna
Franz-Grill-Str. 5, Obj. 213
Tel.: +43 1 7981601-250
E-Mail: gabriele.eder@ofi.at