Using EMPHASIS for the Thermography-Based Fault Detection in Photovoltaic Plants

In this paper, an Efficient Method for PHotovoltaic Arrays Study through Infrared Scanning (EMPHASIS) is presented; it a fast, simple, and trustworthy cell-level diagnosis method commercial photovoltaic (PV) panels. EMPHASIS processes temperature maps experimentally obtained IR cameras based on power balance equation. Along with the identification of malfunction events, offers innovative feature, i.e., estimates electrical powers generated (or dissipated) by individual cells. A procedure to evaluate accuracy predictions proposed, which relies detailed three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulations emulate realistic PV panels under any working condition. Malfunctioning were replicated in environment corresponding fed EMPHASIS. Excellent results achieved both cell- panel-level predictions. More specifically, estimation production panel shunted cell demonstrated error lower than 1%. cases strong nonuniformities as hotspot, range 9–16% was quantified.