More than 50% of solar PV plants with a capacity of over 100MW are in ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ condition, according to US energy and infrastructure inspector Zeitview.
Zeitview said it had conducted a nationwide review to examine factors, such as age, size, positioning, location and materials, that play a part in a site’s long-term operational condition. According to the results, larger plants tended to be healthy, with more than 50% of the 100MW and larger fleets in excellent or good condition on average.
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Moreover, tracker-mounted sites appeared to perform better over time than fixed-tilt sites, with 54% in good or better condition, compared to 44% of fixed-tilt sites.
Broadly speaking, 51% of the examined US solar sites were in excellent or good operational condition. However, solar PV plants that were ten years or older showed different stages of deterioration, with around 25% of the older fleet still in excellent or good operational condition. Only 11% of these older solar PV plants were in the highest condition, according to the results.
“This data can tell owners and operations and maintenance firms specifically where to troubleshoot while saving them money on inspection costs. More importantly, it helps focus the limited labour resources on the power plants that actually need attention,” said Mark Culpepper, general manager of global solar solutions at Zeitview.
Moving forward, Zeitview will continue inspecting solar PV plants in the US and aims to capture over 200GW of aerial imagery and data across the global renewable energy sector this year.
