Plant Performance

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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
The maturing of the solar operations and maintenance business has shone a spotlight on the need for some universally accepted standards and practices across the industry. Vassilis Papaeconomou explains why such a step forward will be vital to ensuring the full value of solar assets is realised.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
Datasets from multiple sources allow PV power plants to be monitored more closely than ever before, but how best to use this data is another ball game. Edmée Kelsey and Gwendalyn Bender look at how data should best be stored, managed and mined for effective solar asset management.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
With either newly built PV plants or plants in operation for a couple of years, an O&M contractor may face a series of issues related to the plant’s design and construction, the quality of the equipment and parts, and warranty claims. Vicente Parra and Gorka Oña highlight some of these issues and recommend how O&M contractors can address them.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
The optimal incorporation of SCADA systems into a PV power plant can have a significant bearing on the profitability of a project. Marcos Blanco looks at how the layout and design of a PV system can best be configured to optimise a project’s performance.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
In recent years the number of PV installations in desert regions has increased, and a regular cleaning of the modules in these areas is necessary because of energy yield losses due to soiling. Investigations carried out by Nicoletta Ferretti and Juliane Berghold at PI Berlin, however, suggest that the stress caused by the cleaning procedure employed potentially affects the module performance during its lifetime.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
Operations and maintenance | The distribution and growing size of PV fleets mean new approaches to plant operation and maintenance are needed. Florian Danner, Jens Kahnert and Bjarn Röse of Conergy Services outline the key ingredients for cost-effective O&M in a globalised industry.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
On-site testing | PV project owners are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to understand how their plants are performing in the field. Ben Willis explores how mobile testing units are emerging as an important tool in the early detection of faulty module equipment.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
Defect assessment | DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions recently completed a five-year study of commercial crystalline silicon PV systems, amassing a wealth of new information about PV system field experience and PV module defects. Principal investigator Alexander Bradley discusses the findings, which, in addition to supporting the company’s ongoing analysis of materials performance, are expected to provide benefits across the industry. Building on the industry knowledge pool contributes towards the standardisation of performance expectations across the solar industry, enables the development of more stringent risk mitigation techniques, and helps purchasers of solar power systems make educated and informed materials assessments.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
Power loss | The highly accurate module efficiency certified by accredited laboratories right after module production is at odds with the very rough estimate of the module’s long-term efficiency stated by the manufacturer for its expected lifetime, through a commonly accepted and industry-standard power warranty. Agustin Carretero of skytron energy presents an innovative method for calculating module degradation by using string-monitoring systems, and compares the results obtained for a case study with the module manufacturer’s power warranty statement.
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Plant Performance, PV Tech Power Papers
Module performance | The potential for PV modules to fail before the end of their intended service life increases the perceived risk, and therefore the cost, of funding PV installations. While current IEC and UL certification testing standards for PV modules have helped to reduce the risk of early field (infant mortality) failures, they are by themselves insufficient for determining PV module service life. In this paper, teams from Fraunhofer CSE and Fraunhofer ISE present the results of the Fraunhofer PV Durability Initiative’s third round of testing, which now includes 10 module types.

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