Feasibility Study for Development of Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors for Moisture Measurements in Photovoltaic Modules

Photovoltaic (PV) module installation increases exponentially, reaching around 2 TW of global installed capacity in 2024. The average degradation rate of a mainstream PV module is 0.5% per year, with this number increasing significantly (1%) for climates with harsh conditions. Some of the most frequently occurring and most severe failure modes are delamination, encapsulant discoloration and internal circuitry corrosion, which all involve humidity, reducing the lifetime of a PV module to 18 years in a tropical environment (instead of more than 25 years). More novel technologies such as TOPCon, perovskites and tandems are observed even to not pass the PV related standards regarding reliability against humidity.  

For these reasons, in-situ quantification of the moisture content absorbed by a PV module is critical.  

Within imo-imomec, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor technologies have been previously adapted for temperature and strain measurements within PV modules. The idea is to conduct a feasibility study on their adaptation for moisture content measurements. 

The successful candidate will start with a comprehensive literature review to find relevant materials for the development of the sensors such as adequate FBGs and moisture sensitive coatings. Afterwards, he/she/they will examine compatibility of suitable technologies with embedding in a PV module. When the compatibility is verified, the candidate will calibrate the measurement method by comparison of the measured value with the moisture content obtained by other material characterization methods (e.g. Karl Fischer Titration), within encapsulation polymers, containing different levels of moisture. 

The work will be conducted in the newly built laboratories at imec in EnergyVille, Genk, working within the Energy Systems and Wafer PV teams.  

Skills required: Good comprehension of scientific articles, good lab skills and material physics/engineering background. Knowledge on polymers, optical fibers and degradation mechanisms of PV modules will be a plus.