Verifying defective PV-modules by IR-imaging and controlling with module optimizers

Buerhop C, Fecher FW, Pickel T, Häring A, Adamski T, Camus C, Hauch J, Brabec C (2018)

Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2018

Journal

Progress in Photovoltaics Wiley-Blackwell

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

DOI: 10.1002/pip.2985

Abstract

Quality control and efficient operation of roof‐top residential photovoltaic (PV)‐installations is an economic and technical challenge because these PV‐systems often suffer from various roof orientations and inclinations as well as partial and temporal shading. Module optimizers, which track the operating point individually for each module group, are good solutions providing also additional electrical information. The purpose of this work is verifying the identification and localization of defective PV‐modules with infrared (IR)–imaging and with module optimizers as well as quantifying the impact on the performance. Several PV‐plants were inspected and carefully analyzed. The findings using IR‐imaging can clearly be classified to substring failures due to open circuit and short circuit, bypass‐diode faults, cell defect, and some undefined optimizer problems. The electric data reveal that these findings are related to certain power loss and monthly or annual yield reduction. Interesting is the temporal behavior of particular defective sites, which show short‐term recovery. In summary, there is a good agreement between the occasionally performed IR‐findings and the continuously monitored electrical data.

Authors with CRIS profile

Christoph Brabec Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET)

Involved external institutions

Bayerisches Zentrum für Angewandte Energieforschung e.V. (ZAE Bayern) DE Germany (DE) SolarEdge Technologies GmbH DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Buerhop, C., Fecher, F.W., Pickel, T., Häring, A., Adamski, T., Camus, C.,... Brabec, C. (2018). Verifying defective PV-modules by IR-imaging and controlling with module optimizers. Progress in Photovoltaics. https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2985

MLA:

Buerhop, Claudia, et al. "Verifying defective PV-modules by IR-imaging and controlling with module optimizers." Progress in Photovoltaics (2018).

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