Title:	The Influence of Thermal Signatures Observed with Infrared Thermography on Power Production in a Utility Scale Power Plant
Author(s):	B.L. Aarseth, A. Skomedal, M.B. Øgaard, E.S. Marstein
Keywords:	Infrared Thermography, System Performance, Outdoor Characterization, Timeseries Analysis
Topic:	PV Systems and Storage – Modelling, Design, Operation and Performance
Subtopic:	Operation, Performance and Maintenance of PV Systems
Event:	37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition
Session:	5DO.3.1
Pages:	1360 - 1363
ISBN:	3-936338-73-6
Paper DOI:	10.4229/EUPVSEC20202020-5DO.3.1
Price:	0,00 EUR
Document(s):	paper

Abstract/Summary:

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A total PV capacity of over 50 MWp and over 300 000 modules has been analyzed using aerial infrared thermography combined with production data analysis. By combining the two methods, the effect of different thermal signatures on power production can be evaluated. The analysis shows a near linear trend between the number of affected module substrings and power loss. We find a slope of -0.67 ± 0.05 % per module substring affected by thermal signatures in power loss on two 24 module strings connected in parallel. Further, the IRT analysis shows that signatures related to cell and interconnect are the most numerous, corresponding to about 2/3 of the thermal signatures observed, while 1/3 are junction box related for the analyzed system. Further, the effect on yield for 5 different thermal signature categories has been evaluated through yield analysis. Our analysis shows that uniformly hot module substrings on average lead to the largest power loss, while module substrings with whole hot cell exhibit the smallest loss.