Reliability in a Solar Universe Mike Silverman & Tom Ortman ©2011 ASQ & Presenta>on Silverman & Ortman Presented live on Nov 10 th , 2011 hCp://reliabilitycalendar.org/ The_Reliability_Calendar/Webinars_ _English/Webinars__English.html
Reliability in the Solar Universe
May 18, 2015
The universe of solar products is large and expanding exponentially.
Most of us are not aware of the manifold applications of solar energy from photovoltaic modules and solar furnaces through manned air travel in planes that never need fuel.
Of all of the emerging clean tech industries, the solar industry is one of the most challenging from a reliability engineering perspective because the industry is innovating so rapidly. Customers (and investors) are demanding very high reliability products, exceeding 25 years in many applications. As this industry grows and expands in every direction, with many new and diverse technologies, the core element of reliability will continue to be critical for success, whether we are powering our homes, cars, clothing or sidewalks.
Most of us are not aware of the manifold applications of solar energy from photovoltaic modules and solar furnaces through manned air travel in planes that never need fuel.
Of all of the emerging clean tech industries, the solar industry is one of the most challenging from a reliability engineering perspective because the industry is innovating so rapidly. Customers (and investors) are demanding very high reliability products, exceeding 25 years in many applications. As this industry grows and expands in every direction, with many new and diverse technologies, the core element of reliability will continue to be critical for success, whether we are powering our homes, cars, clothing or sidewalks.
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Reliability in a Solar Universe
Mike Silverman & Tom Ortman
©2011 ASQ & Presenta>on Silverman & Ortman Presented live on Nov 10th, 2011
hCp://reliabilitycalendar.org/The_Reliability_Calendar/Webinars_-‐_English/Webinars_-‐_English.html
ASQ Reliability Division English Webinar Series One of the monthly webinars
on topics of interest to reliability engineers.
To view recorded webinar (available to ASQ Reliability Division members only) visit asq.org/reliability
To sign up for the free and available to anyone live
webinars visit reliabilitycalendar.org and select English Webinars to find links to register for upcoming events
hCp://reliabilitycalendar.org/The_Reliability_Calendar/Webinars_-‐_English/Webinars_-‐_English.html
The Solar Universe
Confidence in Reliability
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Thomas OrtmanPresident
Concurrent Design , Inc.www.concurrentdesign.com
Mike SilvermanManaging Partner
Ops A La Carte LLCwww.opsalacarte.com
The Solar Universe
AGENDA– Introduction – 5 minutes– Webinar – 45 minutes– Q&A – 10 minutes
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
INTRODUCTION– Who Are We?– Reliability vs. Regulatory Compliance Standards– What we will cover today
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Who Are We?– Ops A La Carte HQ in Santa Clara, CA Presenter: Mike Silverman, Managing Partner
– Concurrent Design HQ in Austin, TX Presenter: Tom Ortman, President/CEO
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe Ops A La Carte
– Founded in 2001– Named top 10 fastest growing, privately-held
companies in the Silicon Valley in 2006 and 2009 by the San Jose Business Journal.
– Over 1350 projects completed in 10 years– Over 500 Customers in over 30 countries– Over 100 different industries, 6 main verticals
CleanTech, MedTech, Telecom, Defense, Oil/Gas, Consumer
– We run FREE monthly webinars. Next month is medical reliability on Dec 2.
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe Ops Solar Reliability Division
– We are the industry leader in reliability solutions in the Solar market. We are committed to Highly Reliability Systems to help save our planet.
– We provide Confidence in Reliability. – We offer a flexible method of engagement:
End-to-end reliability solutions solving specific problems providing individual services Over 30 different training courses in reliability
– We consult in every life cycle phase, train in every aspect of reliability, and test in our state-of-the-art HALT and HASS LabsTM
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe Ops Solar Projects Armageddon Energy - FMEA for residential solar product
Array Power - Rel. program for a micro-inverter
Black Swan Solar – Accelerated Life Test for mechanical items
Carmanah - Accelerated Life Test for marine solar product
Enecsys - Accelerated Life Test and HALT for a micro-inverter
Energy Innovations - Reliability Program Plan and ALT Plan for solar tracker
Enphase Energy – Component Reliability Program
Konarka - Accelerated Life Test for portable solar product
National Semiconductor – Rel. program for a solar optimizer
OptiSolar - Reliability Test Plan for solar inverter
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe Ops Solar Projects continued Skyline Solar – FMEA and HALT on electronics
Solar Bridge – Component Reliability Analysis
Solar Electric Solutions - Warranty Analysis for solar product
Solar Junction - Reliability program for solar product
SolFocus - HALT for solar tracker controller
SunPower - On-Going Reliability Test for solar product
Thompson Technology – Root Cause Analysis for solar tracker
Xandex - Reliability program for a solar optimizer
Xantrex - HALT, FMEA, and Prediction for inverter for solar
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Concurrent Design, Inc.– Founded in 1994– Commercial Product Design– Industrial Product Design– Prototyping and Manufacturing Solutions– Over 1600 Projects in 17 years– Clients in US, Europe, Asia– Strategic Focus: Electronics / Semiconductor /
Clean Energy / Solar Energy Product Design
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Concurrent Design Expertise– Mechanical Engineering Industrial Design / Conceptual Layout Mechanical Design / Machine Design / E/M Pkg Design
– Electrical Engineering Power Distribution & Instrumentation and Control Human Interface Design / HMI / PC / PLC
– Thermal Engineering Analysis & Design– Structural Analysis (FEM/FEA) – Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)– Prototype Build & Engineering Verification
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe Concurrent Solar Related Projects CPV – 500 X Optical Concentration – System Design – Structures PV – Flat Plate – Utility Scale – Emerging Applications PV – Flat Plate – Commercial Scale – Cost Reduction Application Racking System - High volume custom Utility Scale application Racking System – Custom Solar Panel Shock and Vibration Analysis Tracker – HelioStat - Solar Structures Engineering Analysis Tracker – Two Axis – Low Cost, High Volume Commercial / Residential Scale Inverter – Electro-Mechanical Packaging Design Emerging Technology – R&D level activities focused on future generation Processing Equipment - High Volume Wafer Processing Test Equipment - Thin Film - Current Density and Voltage, Quantum Efficiency Test Equipment - Thin Film - Solar Spectrum Light Soaker Test Equipment Test Equipment - Monocrystalline - Flash Test Equipment Manufacturing Tools – Vacuum Process Chamber Analysis and Design Manufacturing Systems – Manufacturing Plant Line Layout, Custom Equipmt
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Presenter 1: Mike Silverman– Founder and managing partner at Ops A La Carte– 25 years of experience in Reliability/Quality– World expert on HALT/HASS/ALT– Offers “HALT Calculator” to predict field failure rate from
HALT results – being used by many solar companies– Author of “How Reliable Is Your Product: 50 Ways to
Improve Product Reliability”, Dec 2010– Book soon to be released in Mandarin– International speaker in 8 different countries– BSEE, CRE– IEEE Reliability Society Silicon Valley Chapter ChairOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Presenter 2: Tom Ortman– Founder and managing partner at Concurrent Design – 35 years of experience
Commercial and Industrial Product Development Manufacturing Process Technologies Manufacturing Solutions
– BS Mechanical Engineering– Speaker on Solar Products and Technologies– SEMI Texas Chapter Chair– Founding Partner – CleanTX Foundation
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Reliability vs. Regulatory Compliance Standards– Reliability ensures product performance over life– Regulatory Compliance Standards ensure safety
and compliance to industry standards– There is a big overlap between the two– There are big differences between the two– In this seminar we will focus on Reliability– Assess confidence in the warranty you are
providing (bankability!)Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe Regulatory Compliance Standards
– Before we move on, one slide on standards IEC 61215 – “Crystalline silicon terrestrial photovoltaic (PV)
modules - Design qualification and type approval” IEC 61646 – “Thin-film terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) modules -
Design qualification and type approval” IEC 62093 – Micro-inverter standard (in process) IEC 62108 – “Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules and
assemblies - Design qualification and type approval” IEC 61730 – “Photovoltaic (PV) module safety qualification” IEEE 1503-2001 “CPV Qualifications for Sections and Modules” UL 1703 – “Flat-Plate Photovoltaic Modules and Panels”
– This list is not a complete listOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
“What is the universe of solar
products?”Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
With acknowledgment to TechSearch International
The Solar Universe
“What is the universe of solar
products?”Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL INSOLATION (SOLAR CONSTANT) ~1366W/M^2 VISIBLE LIGHT 46%, INFRARED 47%,
ULTRAVIOLET 6% TERRESTRIAL INSOLATION
~1000W/M^2 (MAXIMUM - DNI)
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
“What is the universe of solar
products?”Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
PhotoVoltaic Technology (PV) Concentrated PhotoVoltaic Technology (CPV) Built-In PhotoVoltaic Technology (BIPV) Future Solar Technology Concentrating Solar Power Technology (CSP) Solar Thermal Technologies General Solar Technology
In today’s presentation, we will cover the following areas of the solar universe.
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability in the Solar Universe
Reliability is going to play an important role for all of these industries because these industries are usually trying to take the place of an incumbent. Some of the reliability challenges are:
Higher Reliability Demands Higher Availability Demands Higher Warranty Requirements New Materials/New Risks Pressure on reducing power
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability in the Solar Universe
Reliability Techniques in Each Product Life Cycle Phase
CONCEPT PHASEDESIGN/DEVELOPMENT PHASEPROTOTYPE PHASEMANUFACTURING PHASE
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability in the Solar Universe
CONCEPT PHASE RELIABILITY TECHNIQUES○ Assessment / Goal Setting / Gap Analysis○ Competitive Analysis / Benchmarking○ Reliability Program Plan Development
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
DESIGN/DEVEL. PHASE RELIABILITY TECHNIQUES○ RoHS Conversion / Material Selection○ Risk Analysis/FMEA○ Reliability Modeling ○ Thermal Analysis○ Derating Analysis ○ Preventive Maintenance○ Warranty Predictions (Bankability Analysis)
The Solar UniverseReliability in the Solar Universe
PROTOTYPE PHASE RELIABILITY TECHNIQUES○ HALT ○ Reliability Demonstration Test○ Accelerated Life Test
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
MANUFACTURING PHASE RELIABILITY TECHNIQUES○ HASS○ ORT/OLT○ Field Data Analysis/Warranty Review
The Solar Universe
For each type of system that we cover, we will describe the technology and then point out some of the reliability risks and what we are doing to mitigate these risks.
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
PhotoVoltaic Technology
PVOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
PhotoVoltaic Technology (PV)– Cells/Modules (Panels)– Racking/Trackers– Inverters/Converters
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability Risks of Panels
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Failure Modes Failure Effects Reliability TechniqueTemperature Cycling Seal Loss/Cell Degradation Environmental testingVoltage Mismatch Pulls down all the voltages Derating Analysis/Electr. Char.Humidity enters panel Corrosion/Loss of Efficiency Environmental testingPoor soldering joints Early failures HASSPanels get dirty Loss of efficiency Preventive maintenanceEarthquake Breaking Environmental testingHail/Bad Weather Breaking Environmental testingWalking on Breaking HALT (using increasing weight)Birds pecking at panels Damage to panels, wiring HALT (using increasing pressure)Premature Aging Warranty Concerns Matl/Warranty Analysis/ALTUV Exposure Embrittlement/Seal Loss UV ALTVibration Failure Broken Connections Environmental testingManufacturing Defects Various (many cases of fires) HASS/ORT/OLTInstallation Failure Various (many cases of fires) High voltage HALT
The Solar Universe CASE STUDY: Vibration Failure on Module
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
POLLING QUESTION 1: Are you familiar with the following environmental techniques used to characterize/mitigate failures? Temperature Cycling HALT HASS OLT/ORT
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
PhotoVoltaic Technology
Racking/TrackersOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
SPG Solar
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseTracker Reliability
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Do you track by minute or once an hour or a few times a day?–Minute by minute will give you higher
efficiency but lower reliability–You must optimize this for your
application
Reliability Trade-offs with Trackers
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability Risks of Trackers
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Failure Modes Failure Effects Rel. TechniqueMechanical Failures Lose efficiency ALTHigh winds System Failure Wind Loading AnalysisInstallation Failure Weakens tracker, reduces life Design for InstallationFaulty Algorithm Tracker over-adjusts & breaks Software FMEA
The Solar Universe CASE STUDY: RCA on Tracker Failure
– Customer Failure During Windstorm– We went to site and reviewed evidence– Tools: Material Analysis, Wind-loading Analysis– Conclusions: Change in Design after Windloading Analysis Installation Error caused weak member Software Bug caused overtracking
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
POLLING QUESTION 2: Are you familiar with reliability techniques used to characterize life of trackers? Mechanical loading analysis Prognostics to detect early failure signs Accelerated life testing Weibull field data analysis
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
PhotoVoltaic Technology
Inverters/ConvertersOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
ConversionInverters DC-AC
–String level (Scale)–Micro Inverters
DC-DC Converters (Optimizers)
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Inverters
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Inverters
The Solar Universe
Enphase Micro-Inverters
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Micro-inverters
The Solar UniverseDC-DC Converter (Optimizers)
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
“In addition to rigorous internal testing, SantaClara, Calif.- based Ops a La Carte providedreliability testing of National's SolarMagic poweroptimizer at its HALT & HASS Labs in SantaClara. Ops a La Carte has had a long-termpresence in the reliability field, conductingextensive reliability testing for the aerospace,automotive, medical, telecom, defense & energy(including fuel cell, oil and solar) industries”
- - National Semiconductor PR Department.Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
“The reliability modeling for the SunMizer(TM), asolar product manufactured by Xandex Solar, hasan expected Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)of more than 500 years. Xandex has leveragedtheir experience in designing high quality, hightechnology products by utilizing Ops A La Carte forHighly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) and HighlyAccelerated Stress Screening (HASS) to producethe SunMizer(TM)”
- - - Xandex PR Department.Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Is it better to use DC-DC or DC-AC? Is it better to have one large inverter
or many micro-inverters? Is it better to place the inverter on
the back of the panel or away from the elements?
Reliability Trade-off with Inverters
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Currently the reliability of large inverters is 7-10 years while panels are pushing 25 years. Big single point failure here.Micro-inverter companies are starting
to claim 25 years.
Reliability Trade-offs with Inverters
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability Risks of Inverters/Converters
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Failure Modes Failure Effects Rel. TechniqueElectronics degradation Won’t meet long life HALTECap Failures Won’t meet long life ALTSolder Joints Wear Out Won’t meet long life Lifetime AnalysisSolder Joint Defects Early Failures HASSConnector contacts wear Won’t meet long life ALTSeal integrity broken Won’t meet long life ALTLightning Early/Catastrophic Failure Environmental testingVoltage spikes from grid Early/Catastrophic Failure Electrical testingWrong Phase Match Early/Catastrophic Failure Electrical testing
The Solar Universe CASE STUDY: Availability Analysis on Inverter
– Customer needed to maximize availability– We performed FMEA to identify key risks– Design Analyses – Prediction, FMEA, Derating,
Thermal Analyses– Conclusions: Reducing stresses in key areas increased availability We implemented prognostics to the equipment to detect
early failures and perform preventive maintenance, thereby increasing the availability.
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
POLLING QUESTION 3: Are you familiar with reliability techniques used during design characterization for inverters/converters? FMEA Derating Analysis Thermal Analysis Finite Element Analysis
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Concentrated PhotoVoltaic Technology
CPVOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Emcore Corporation500X 2 Axis CPV Array
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability Risks of CPV
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
Failure Modes Failure Effects Rel. TechniqueDegradation of Optics Less Concentrated Energy Life Testing on OpticsDegradation of Glues/Mounts Less Concentrated Energy Life Testing on GluesOptics Get Dirty Less Concentrated Energy Envir Test on SealingOptical Tolerancing Less Concentrated Energy DFSSThermal Issues Loss of Productivity Thermal Analysis
The Solar Universe
Built in PhotoVoltaic Technology
BIPVOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Sanyo Solar Arc
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
If infrastructure then more expensive to change.Becomes a critical system. New age of building material that
must be very reliable.
Reliability Implications with BIPV
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseReliability Risks of BIPV
Failure Modes Failure Effects MitigationsFailure resulting in replacement Tear into building Design so that systems can be maintainedFailure of critical element Power loss to whole system Build in redundancy
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
FutureSolar
Technology?Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Solar Clothing
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Hybrid Solar
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Nanotechnology based Solar
Nanocolumns of hematite, one of the iron oxide
compounds that Professors Allen Bard and Buddie Mullins are testing in their efforts to convert
sunlight to fuel.
Professor Allen Bard University of Texas at
Austin
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseHybrid Solar
MTPV Corporation
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
With acknowledgment to TechSearch International
With acknowledgment to TechSearch International
3DIC w / TSVThree Dimensional Integrated Circuits with Through Silicon Vias
The Solar Universe
Often new materials that have not yet been provenOften expanded environmental
requirements– temperature– mechanical stress
Reliability Challenges with Future Solar Technologies
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Concentrating Solar Power Technology
CSPOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) vs. PhotoVoltaic (PV) collector.Photovoltaic collectors use electronics (chips) to convert sunlight into
electricity, while thermal solar collectors (CSP) concentrate heat and directly or indirectly convert this to electricity.
Source csposi.org
SolarTrough
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Solar Power Tower (Solucar PS10, Spain)
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Solar Thermal Technologies
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
General Solar
TechnologyOps A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar UniverseSolar Impulse
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
TÛRANOR PlanetSolar
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Often expanded environmental requirements– temperature– mechanical stress
Reliability Challenges with General Solar
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
The Solar Universe
Thomas OrtmanPresident
Concurrent Design , Inc.www.concurrentdesign.com
Mike SilvermanManaging Partner
Ops A La Carte LLCwww.opsalacarte.com
Confidence in Reliability
Ops A La Carte and Concurrent Design
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