PV System Predictive Maintenance: Challenges, Current Approaches, and Opportunities

Lisa B. Bosman, Walter D. Leon-Salas, William Hutzel and Esteban A. Soto
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Lisa B. Bosman: Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Walter D. Leon-Salas: Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
William Hutzel: Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Esteban A. Soto: Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Within the United States solar energy industry, there is a general motto of “set it and forget it” with solar energy. This notion is derived from much of the research and reliability studies around the photovoltaic (PV) panels themselves, not necessarily the PV system as a whole (including the inverter and other components). This implies that maintenance and regular monitoring is not needed. Yet many things can go wrong to cause the actual performance to deviate from the expected performance. If failures and/or unanticipated degradation issues go undetected, they will lead to reduced energy generation (and associated electricity credits) and/or potential loss of component warranty because of manufacturer turnover. Given the size of the problem and gaps with current solutions, the authors propose that PV system owners need an unbiased third-party off-the-shelf system-level predictive maintenance tool to optimize return-on-investment and minimize time to warranty claim in PV installations. This paper reviews the literature highlighting challenges, current approaches, and opportunities for PV predictive maintenance. The paper concludes with a call to action for establishing a collaborative agenda toward prioritizing PV predictive maintenance.

Keywords: solar energy; system-level; degradation; ROI; quality assurance; responsive; third party evaluation; net-metering; grid-tied; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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