While the photovoltaic power station brings green power to everyone, it is also a financial investment for more than 25 years. From the perspective of financial attributes, in addition to paying attention to the rate of return on investment, the safety of investment is also very important.

As a product that requires service for 25 or even 30 years, the design of solar modules should fully consider the ability to withstand various stresses in extreme climates. Photovoltaic modules need to deal with various extreme climates during the life cycle of the power station. The unlimited increase in module size will bring various risks to the safe operation of the power station, and also bring hidden dangers to the investment income of the power station. According to related tests and analysis, the strength of 2mm semi-tempered glass decreases significantly as the width increases, so there may be risks in anti-hail. Recently, there have been reports that super-large modules can pass the 35mm diameter hail test. This large and strong result is uncommon knowledge. A latest test result on the anti-35mm hail performance of super-large modules shows that: when hail strikes, the scene All three large modules are broken, and the safety hazards caused by the large module area are clear at a glance.

When hail hits oversized modules with an area of ​​more than 3 square meters, the risk will increase exponentially compared to conventional-sized modules. In order to let everyone see the destructive effects of hail weather on super-large modules more clearly, this article will start from the material properties of module glass and simulate the impact test results under hail of different diameters, thereby revealing the anti-hail impact of super-large modules and conventional modules. The performance difference.

1. Material characteristics of solar glass

As we all know, the edges of glass tend to break more easily, and in real life glass often cracks from the edges. For photovoltaic glass, its toughening strength is mainly achieved by the temperature gradient of the quench section. The 1.3-meter width of the ultra-large module increases significantly, and the cooling uniformity of the quench section wind grid is more difficult. Therefore, as the width of the glass of the super-large module increases, the overall toughness (especially the edge area) will decrease, and the impact resistance will become weaker. The risk of glass bursting when hit by hail will increase dozens of times.

Glass Performance on Different Widths

2. Performance of anti-hail

In order to verify the material characteristics of the above photovoltaic glass, we conducted simulation experiments for hail with a diameter of 25mm and 35mm. The results showed that: when the hail diameter is 25mm, conventional modules (1.1 meters wide glass) and super large modules (1.3 meters wide glass) All can pass the hail test; when the diameter of the hail is expanded to 35mm, the oversized components begin to show the tendency of edge cracking, while the conventional components can still work normally. The experimental results further prove that with the obvious increase in the size of the super-large components, the glass tempering performance decreases simultaneously, especially the performance of the glass edge to resist hail drops rapidly.

25mm conventional solar panel Hail simulation

25mm big size solar panel Hail simulation

35mm conventional solar panel Hail simulation

In summary, because of the obvious increase in area of super-sized components, they will withstand greater impact kinetic energy when hit by hail compared to conventional-sized components. At the same time, their toughened strength is also decreasing, so the impact resistance becomes extremely fragile. Once hail weather occurs, the huge impact force will bring great risks to the safety of the components, and the probability of causing economic losses to the owner will also increase dozens of times.

In fact, the risk of hail damage is not inevitable. A rational photovoltaic investor will carefully consider the potential risks and come up with the optimal solution that is most suitable for his own project. That is, under the premise of ensuring that his investment is safe and reliable, he chooses components of reasonable size. Instead of blindly following the so-called "super-size".