Teresa Barnes is a Principal Scientist, the Director of the DuraMAT Consortium for module materials research, and a Distinguished Member of the Research Staff. DuraMAT focuses on PV module and system reliability, including accelerated test development, materials and interface modeling, reliability forecasting, sustainability, and field performance.

Teresa has worked in PV at NREL for 19 years on thin-film PV, flexible devices, reliability and sustainability. She is currently on detail to the Loan Programs Office of DOE to support clean energy manufacturing. She is a Chemical Engineer with a PhD from the Colorado School of Mines and a BS from the University of Maryland.

2024 CME NASA Symposium Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) module technologies have evolved rapidly as energy yields have increased and costs have drastically decreased. We deploy new PV technologies all over the world in harsher climates and expect long lifetimes. However, changing climates and technologies require us to forecast module reliability without extensive past performance data. Extending this forecasting ability to space requires understanding combined stresses, like UV and rapid thermal cycles, of each environment and how those will affect module materials and reliability.