IN PROJECT MANTIS, OUR TEAM WILL APPLY MULTISCALE CHARACTERIZATION AND ANALYSIS METHODS TO CDTE PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) MODULES EXPOSED TO ACCELERATED AGING AND FIELD OPERATION IN AN EFFORT TO IDENTIFY ELECTRICAL AND OPTOELECTRONIC SIGNATURES OF VARIOUS PERFORMANCE-LIMITING DEFECTS. INSIGHTS WILL BE USED TO DEVELOP NEXT GENERATION INSPECTION TOOLS FOR CDTE MODULES AND ARRAYS, WHICH WILL BE APPLIED OUTDOORS IN LARGE-SCALE CDTE INSTALLATIONS AND INFORM VALUE-ADDING MAINTENANCE ACTIONS AND PERFORMANCE PREDICTIONS FOR EXISTING AND FUTURE PLANTS. NEW INSPECTION TECHNIQUES WILL USE A COMBINATION OF TEMPORALLY- AND SPATIALLY-RESOLVED OPTOELECTRONIC MEASUREMENTS. RESULTS WILL BE INTERPRETED IN A FRAMEWORK BUILT ON BOTH DATA-DRIVEN AND PHYSICAL MODELS ALONG WITH MULTI-MODAL STATISTICAL ANALYSIS THAT RELATES FEATURES IN IMAGES TO MODULE PERFORMANCE. PROJECT MANTIS WILL PROVIDE UNIQUE VISION INTO PV SYSTEMS, LEVERAGING HIGH-THROUGHPUT FIELD MEASUREMENTS TO DETECT, CLASSIFY, AND RANK DEFECTS WHICH CAN THEN BE ELIMINATED THROUGH ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS. THE TEAM’S END-OF-PROJECT GOAL IS TO DEVELOP NON-CONTACT FIELD MEASUREMENT TOOLS AND ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES THAT PROVIDE INSIGHTS TO OWNERS / OPERATORS OF PV PLANTS WITH THIN-FILM MODULES. LEARNINGS AND BEST PRACTICES WILL BE COLLECTED AND COMMUNICATED TO OWNERS, OPERATORS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS AS FOLLOWS: ¿ IDENTIFY THE MOST DETRIMENTAL DEGRADATION MODES THAT CAN AFFECT OVERALL PLANT PERFORMANCE. DEFECTS WILL BE IMAGED DURING FIELD AND LAB TESTING, CATEGORIZED AND CORRELATED BY THEIR IMPACT TO PERFORMANCE. ¿ HYPOTHESIZE DEFECT ROOT CAUSES AND IF/HOW THE MOST DETRIMENTAL TYPES CAN BE AVOIDED. PUBLISH FINDINGS TO MOTIVATE AND ENABLE FUTURE INVESTIGATIONS. ¿ DEVELOP AND VALIDATE A METHODOLOGY FOR DETERMINING THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN MEASUREMENT COSTS (E.G., FREQUENCY, SAMPLING QUANTITY) AND INFORMATION GAINED.