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@ARTICLE{Abdallah:1052841,
      author       = {Abdallah, A. A. and Kivambe, M. and Abdelrahim, M. and
                      Elgaili, M. and Ahmed, A. and Mroue, K. and Stroyuk,
                      Oleksandr and Mashkov, Oleksandr and Peters, Ian Marius and
                      Buerhop-Lutz, Claudia},
      title        = {{E}arly degradation of silicon heterojunction {PV} modules
                      installed on horizontal single-axis trackers in desert
                      climate},
      journal      = {Solar energy materials $\&$ solar cells},
      volume       = {294},
      issn         = {0927-0248},
      address      = {Amsterdam [u.a.]},
      publisher    = {NH, Elsevier},
      reportid     = {FZJ-2026-01198},
      pages        = {113899 -},
      year         = {2026},
      abstract     = {We present our latest findings on the early degradation of
                      photovoltaic (PV) silicon heterojunction (HJT) modules
                      installed in harsh desert climates for about two and half
                      years. The results are compared with the benchmark modules
                      with monofacial and bifacial passivated emitter rear contact
                      (PERC) and passivated emitter rear totally diffused (PERT)
                      technologies installed on a horizontal single-axis tracker
                      (HSAT). These findings showed an early degradation of 62
                      $\%$ of the inspected PV modules induced by their field
                      exposure to a desert climate. Ultraviolet fluorescence (UVF)
                      imaging showed signatures of early degradation of
                      encapsulant materials, while near-infrared absorption
                      spectroscopy (NIRA) identified PV module materials in the
                      field. We found evidence of the use of different encapsulant
                      materials and different variants of the same encapsulant
                      materials by the module manufacturer. In contrast to the
                      PERC PV modules with thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) and
                      polyolefin elastomer (POE) encapsulants, HJT modules with
                      TPO encapsulants showed distinct UVF patterns indicating
                      early degradation. Similarly, all the HJT PV modules with
                      POE and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant showed UVF
                      degradation patterns. The PERC-2 PV modules exhibited UVF
                      degradation patterns as well but with no significant change
                      in the maximum power Pmax. While the Pmax of the HJT-1,
                      HJT-2a, and HJT-2b dropped by −5.9 $\%,$ −3.0 $\%,$ and
                      −7.3 $\%,$ respectively. The study showed that harsh
                      desert climate induces early encapsulant aging,
                      particularly, glass-glass modules showing the importance of
                      encapsulant material selection.},
      cin          = {IET-2},
      ddc          = {620},
      cid          = {I:(DE-Juel1)IET-2-20140314},
      pnm          = {1214 - Modules, stability, performance and specific
                      applications (POF4-121)},
      pid          = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-1214},
      typ          = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
      UT           = {WOS:001582105200002},
      doi          = {10.1016/j.solmat.2025.113899},
      url          = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1052841},
}