Vandalism

Vandalism is deliberate damage to PV equipment by people, and it is one of the outside causes named for broken module front glass. The same source lists animal damage alongside it, and it names heavy impacts such as stones as another cause of glass breakage. Broken module glass is a safety and performance problem. It can lead to insulation faults, moisture getting in and faster electrical degradation. Field failure surveys also use theft or vandalism as a cause category for inverter failures, mounting failures and interconnect failures. When glass is found broken, check it by visual inspection, insulation testing, electroluminescence imaging and a review of operating data. Replace the module when there is a safety or insulation risk.

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• sentence 1: support check: partial - The source mentions vandalism as a cause of glass breakage, but it doesn't define vandalism as deliberate damage by people, and it doesn't call it an 'outside cause' in so many words (though external stresses are mentioned). -->