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© 2020. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Nowadays, photovoltaic (PV) silicon plants dominate the growth in renewable energies generation. Utility-scale photovoltaic plants (USPVPs) have increased exponentially in size and power in the last decade and, therefore, it is crucial to develop optimum maintenance techniques. One of the most promising maintenance techniques is the study of electroluminescence (EL) images as a complement of infrared thermography (IRT) analysis. However, its high cost has prevented its use regularly up to date. This paper proposes a maintenance methodology to perform on-site EL inspections as efficiently as possible. First, current USPVP characteristics and the requirements to apply EL on them are studied. Next, an increase over the automation level by means of adding automatic elements in the current PV plant design is studied. The new elements and their configuration are explained, and a control strategy for applying this technique on large photovoltaic plants is developed. With the aim of getting on-site EL images on a real plant, a PV inverter has been developed to validate the proposed methodology on a small-scale solar plant. Both the electrical parameters measured during the tests and the images taken have been analysed. Finally, the implementation cost of the solution has been calculated and optimised. The results conclude the technical viability to perform on-site EL inspections on PV plants without the need to measure and analyse the panel defects out of the PV installation.

Details

Title
Novel Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Plant Electroluminescence Maintenance Technique by Means of Bidirectional Power Inverter Controller
Author
Ballestín-Fuertes, Javier  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Muñoz-Cruzado-Alba, Jesús  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Sanz-Osorio, José F; Hernández-Callejo, Luis  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Alonso-Gómez, Victor  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Morales-Aragones, José Ignacio; Gallardo-Saavedra, Sara  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Martínez-Sacristan, Oscar; Moretón-Fernández, Ángel  VIAFID ORCID Logo 
First page
3084
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20763417
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2397429603
Copyright
© 2020. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.