DuraMAT 2

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will lead the DuraMat Consortium, with Sandia National Laboratories, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) as core partners. Core partners will provide a representative for DuraMAT's leadership team, lead a core objective, and be eligible to lead core DuraMAT research projects. The core participant institutions- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Stanford University (SU), and Arizona State University (ASU) - have unique capabilities in areas relevant to DuraMat and are eligible to participate in all DuraMAT projects. The DuraMAT Consortium brings together DOE national lab and university research capabilities with the photovoltaic (PV) and supply-chain industries to accelerate a sustainable, just, and equitable transition to zero carbon electricity generation by 2035 through our five core objectives: development of a central data resource for PV modules, multi-scale and multi-physics modeling, disruptive acceleration science, forensic tools for fielded modules, and materials solutions for more durable, reliable, and resilient modules. DuraMAT leverages the decades of experience, expertise, and world-class facilities at the national laboratories to create a “one-stop-shop” for timely solutions to critical barriers limiting module reliability and durability. In its first five years, DuraMat has become a trusted partner for the US industry. The core objectives have been defined in partnership with DuraMat's Industry Advisory Board (IAB) and are long term research objectives that are expected to continue through DuraMat 2.0. Selection and funding of specific projects however are dynamic, allowing the consortium the flexibility to address the most current and pressing industry concerns. DuraMAT funding supports research projects through a number of different competitive processes described in this TWP. All of the core objectives are focused on the DuraMAT goal of accelerating a sustainable, just and equitable transition to zero carbon electricity generation by 2035 by addressing these two questions: (1) Which materials and module designs will enable sustainable, high energy yield 50-year modules, and how do we ensure that these new modules are not going to fail prematurely? What triggers wear out, defined as a rapid increase in degradation at end of life, and what are the characteristics, rates, and mechnisms of long term degradation in PV modules? In close collaboration with the IAB, DuraMat 2 has identified understanding which materials and packaging designs will enable high energy yield modules with the potential for 50-year lifetimes and identifying long term degradation mechanisms and wear out failures as our highest priorities. Building confidence in 50 year modules requires an understanding of early failures and end of life wear out. Our planned work in DuraMAT 2 includes: • De-risking high yield modules and screening them for weaknesses that lead to early failure.; • Identifying the triggers and dominant contributors to wear out failures;.• Understanding the role of polymeric materials in wear out and long term degradation;.• Development of predictive degradation models integrating cell and packaging degradation with environmental stressors;• Quantitatively relating accelerated testing performance with expected field performance ;• Continued study of bifacial modules, glass glass packaging, and impacts of high energy yield module design;• Continued development of new accelerated testing methods, modeling approaches, and scalable forensics;• Development of materials solutions and designs to enable new applications and address known risks;• Development of data science tools and methods to quickly identify trends in dependence of PV system and module reliability and on module material and design technologies. Both the long term and the early stage de-risking projects will leverage our cutting edge data analytics and processing tools, along wit

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