Sunbelt-located optimized solar modules made in India of solar grade silicon from Elkem Solar AS.

A sun-belt location like India is a specially intersting place for testing solar modules made from silicon from the Elkem Solar metallurgical route. This is due to the potential regarding solar irradiation, but also highly because performance of solar mod ules in high-temperature areas is an important aspect to study. High temperatures are expected to degrade solar modules faster than in areas of moderate temperatures. There are indications that ESS-type compensated material (containing both dopants boron and phosphorus) will degrade less than competetive polysilicon material, and this hypothesis is important to demonstrate in a statistically satisfying way. In order to do that several module packages of different types need to be tested - representing a p ower plant, which will also provide valuable information regarding ESS material in solar modules as a means of replacing fossile fuels in India in the future. Through the Indian industrial partner Titan Energy systems tailor made solar modules containing ESS can be made for research purposes studying and establishing for instance optimal size (number of cells), optimal voltage/current of modules (series and parallell coupling, optimal number of bypass diodes as a function of cell type, as well as shadowin g effects and results of light soaking (UV) and temperature treatment in so-called accelerated tests. Besides generating vital information and knowledge about the ESS material, the project will focus on establishing an India-Norway cooperation between the involved academic partners and the industry partners. This will be of importance in the build-up of international relations for the local research groups on PV in Kristiansand/Grimstad, as well as representing a sosial and research development effort tow ards the Indian partners.