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

Isidoro Lillo-Bravo, Pablo González-Martínez, Miguel Larrañeta and José Guasumba-Codena
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Isidoro Lillo-Bravo: Department of Energy Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, Camino de los Descubrimientos s/n, 41092 Seville, Spain
Pablo González-Martínez: Department of Energy Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, Camino de los Descubrimientos s/n, 41092 Seville, Spain
Miguel Larrañeta: Andalusian Association for Research and Industrial Cooperation (AICIA), Camino de los Descubrimientos s/n, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
José Guasumba-Codena: Renewable Energy Laboratory, Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas, 171103 Sangolquí, Ecuador

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-23

Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) plant failures have a significant influence on PV plant security, reliability, and energy balance. Energy losses produced by a PV plant are due to two large causes: failures and inefficiencies. Knowing the relative influence of energy losses due to failures and energy losses due to inefficiencies on the PV plant energy balance contribute to the optimization of its design, commissioning, and maintenance tasks. This paper estimates the failure rates, grouped by components, and the relative impact of the failures on the PV plant energy balance through real operation and maintenance follow-up data of 15 PV plants in Spain and Italy for 15 months. Results show that the influence of failures in energy losses of all analysed PV plants is low, reaching a maximum value of 0.96% of the net energy yield. Solar field energy losses only represent 4.26% of all failure energy losses. On the other hand, energy losses due to inefficiencies have represented between 22.34% and 27.58% of the net energy yield.

Keywords: photovoltaic (PV); energy losses; failures (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: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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