Impact of Energy Losses Due to Failures on Photovoltaic Plant Energy Balance

Lillo-Bravo, I.; González-Martínez, Pablo; Larrañeta, M. G.; Guasumba-Codena, José

doi:10.3390/en11020363

Cited by 50 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…Once the coefficient of the open-circuit voltage is determined based on the temperature, the short-circuit and maximum currents are calculated using Equations (4) and (5). As the panels have a life of 30 years the new current values are shown in Table 1.…”

Section: Model and Electrical Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

On Field Infrared Thermography Sensing for PV System Efficiency Assessment: Results and Comparison with Electrical Models

Muttillo

Nardi

Stornelli

et al. 2020

Sensors

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The evaluation of photovoltaic (PV) system’s efficiency loss, due to the onset of faults that reduce the output power, is crucial. The challenge is to speed up the evaluation of electric efficiency by coupling the electric characterization of panels with information gathered from module diagnosis, amongst which the most commonly employed technique is thermographic inspection. The aim of this work is to correlate panels’ thermal images with their efficiency: a “thermal signature” of panels can be of help in identifying the fault typology and, moreover, for assessing efficiency loss. This allows to identify electrical power output losses without interrupting the PV system operation thanks to an advanced PV thermography characterization. In this paper, 12 faulted working panels were investigated. Their electrical models were implemented in MATLAB environment and developed to retrieve the ideal I-V characteristic (from ratings), the actual (operative) I-V characteristics and electric efficiency. Given the curves shape and relative difference, based on three reference points (namely, open circuit, short circuit, and maximum power points), faults’ typology has been evidenced. Information gathered from infrared thermography imaging, simultaneously carried out on panels during operation, were matched with those from electrical characterization. Panels’ “thermal signature” has been coupled with the “electrical signature”, to obtain an overall depiction of panels’ health status.

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Section: Model and Electrical Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By now, given the age of installed systems, a new concern is becoming relevant: the evaluation of PV panels' efficiency, that might decrease for the onset of faults (like delamination, defective bypass diode, cell breakage), and for materials aging [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Field Infrared Thermography Sensing for PV System Efficiency Assessment: Results and Comparison with Electrical Models

Muttillo

Nardi

Stornelli

et al. 2020

Sensors

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“…In PVSYST program [31,[35][36][37][38], the losses, yield factor, performance ratio are determined as below:…”

Section: Performance Calculation Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasibility Study Of Rooftop Photovoltaic Power System For A Research Institute Towards Green Building In Vietnam

Phap¹,

Nga²

2018

EAI Endorsed Transactions on Energy Web

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Use of renewable power technology in urban area can help the buildings to minimize the carbon footprint, meet the electricity needs and achieve the nearly zero-energy building. In this study, the design results of the rooftop grid-tied PV power system with the capacity of 56.7kW for a research institute building in Vietnam are analyzed. The study results have calculated the electricity generation, performance of the rooftop grid-tied PV power system as well as reduction potential of the amount of CO 2 emitted into the environment. The design results of the rooftop grid-tied PV power system for a research institute building will be compared with the actual power generation results of an installed rooftop grid-tied PV power system at a building of General Directorate of Energy-Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade in the same city.

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“…It helps to evaluate the quality of any product, identify and localize faults, reduce maintenance costs and avoid system breakdowns. Results from a study by Lillo-Bravo et al [1] show that the energy losses due to failures reach 0.96% of the net energy yield, and for inefficiencies, up to 27.5%. Furthermore, reliable monitoring data of environmental, thermal and electrical parameters could be useful to obtain detailed information about the degradation processes of the solar cell and to compare the experimental data with the degradation models found in the literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of Thermal and Electrical Parameters in Photovoltaic Systems for Predictive and Cross-Correlated Monitorization

et al. 2019

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Photovoltaic electricity generation is growing at an almost exponential rate worldwide, reaching 400 GWp of installed capacity in 2018. Different types of installations, ranging from small building integrated systems to large plants, require different maintenance strategies, including strategies for monitorization and data processing. In this article, we present three case studies at different scales (from hundreds of Wp to a 2.1 MWp plant), where automated parameter monitorization and data analysis has been carried out, aiming to detect failures and provide recommendations for optimum maintenance procedures. For larger systems, the data collected by the inverters provides the best source of information, and the cross-correlated analysis which uses these data is the best strategy to detect failures in module strings and failures in the inverters themselves (an average of 32.2% of inverters with failures was found after ten years of operation). In regards to determining which module is failing, the analysis of thermographic images is reliable and allows the detection of the failed module within the string (up to 1.5% for grave failures and 9.1% of medium failures for the solar plant after eleven years of activity). Photovoltaic (PV) systems at different scales require different methods for monitorization: Medium and large systems depend on inverter automated data acquisition, which can be complemented with thermographic images. Nevertheless, if the purpose of the monitorization is to obtain detailed information about the degradation processes of the solar cells, it becomes necessary to measure the environmental (irradiance and ambient temperature), thermal and electrical parameters (I-V characterization) of the modules and compare the experimental data with the modelling results. This is only achievable in small systems.

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Impact of Energy Losses Due to Failures on Photovoltaic Plant Energy Balance

Cited by 50 publications

References 34 publications

On Field Infrared Thermography Sensing for PV System Efficiency Assessment: Results and Comparison with Electrical Models

On Field Infrared Thermography Sensing for PV System Efficiency Assessment: Results and Comparison with Electrical Models

Feasibility Study Of Rooftop Photovoltaic Power System For A Research Institute Towards Green Building In Vietnam

Measurement of Thermal and Electrical Parameters in Photovoltaic Systems for Predictive and Cross-Correlated Monitorization

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