Have you ever felt a bump or jerk while traveling on roads? Solar PV modules face this issue. These lead to vibration which in turn may lead to crack on the solar cells which may cause degradation in the long-term. So packaging becomes important for transporting PV modules from the manufacturing line to the installation site. The severity of vibrations experienced by the PV modules during transportation, manual handling and forklift handling was studied.Lateral vibrations experienced by the PV modules, which were placed vertically inside the pallet were immoderate.Manual handling of modules found to have high values of acceleration.

It was found that the international standard is not suitable for Indian road conditions primarily for the lower frequencies. Study shows, the standard pallets are safer for the transportation of PV modules through good roads. Few of the PV modules placed in the cassette packing developed micro-cracks which shows these are not sufficient to absorb the impacts of transportation. The road traversed in the experiment was one of the better laid and maintained roads in the country.Transportation to remote locations is necessary for devising an appropriate vibration test profile for Indian road conditions.