You already know that walking on solar panels is not recommended, but do you know the real impact of doing it?

🕺🏽 If you are a panel walker or often crawl on them, you should know that this practice creates microcracks that result in power losses and a reduced system lifespan. The effect varies depending on the type of microcrack (number of cracks and their orientations, distributions, and dimensions).

💥 In a study conducted by the Institute for Solar Energy Research (Germany), a mechanical load test based on the IEC 61215 standard was applied to 27 photovoltaic panels, with the highest load being a pressure of 5400 Pa (550.64 kg/m²). Electroluminescence images were taken before and after the mechanical load test, and the comparison of the two images showed that 41% of the cells had experienced some damage. 550 kg/m² might seem like a lot, but a person weighing 80 kg standing on one foot exerts a pressure of over 2000 kg/m² on the sole.

📊 Although the initial results after the mechanical load tests showed relatively small losses, less than 2.5%, after applying accelerated aging cycles, these losses increased to over 5% and even close to 10%.

So, if you want to avoid losses of up to 10% and a reduction in the lifespan of your panels, it's better not to subject them to unnecessary pressures.

In this fantastic video shared by John Davies CEng from 2DegreesKelvin, you can observe in real-time and very clearly the effect of footsteps through electroluminescence testing. As you can see, crawling does not improve the outcome!