Practical hots,pot identification in photovoltaic (PV) modules using infrared thermography for commercial and industrial application: an industrial training study

One of the most important technologies that contributes to clean and sustainable energy generation is solar photovoltaic (PV) system. Because solar energy applications are growing in commercial and industrial applications, reliability and safety of PY systems are becoming increasingly important. A major problem with PY performance is the production of hotspots within the solar module which occur when one region of the module is shaded or dirty or contains faulty cells or internal electric defects, resulting in the hotspot being considerably hotter than the rest of the module. Hotspots may lead to inefficiency in the system, cause damage to module materials and present a potential safety risk if not identified early on.
During my industrial training, I had hands-on experience with the hotspot detection technique using infrared (IR) thermography which is extensively used in PY maintenance. IR thermography is based on the ability to perceive heat radiation emitted from the surface of an object and transform it into a thermal image. A temperature map of a healthy PY module will show an even temperature distribution, with darker hot areas indicating a fault. During the inspection process I acquired one important technical skill, which was the analysis of the temperature difference, between the suspected hotspot and the neighbouring cells to assess the severity of the defect. My main technical experience was carrying out a thermal inspection on a commercial PY installation site. I scanned several solar modules with an infrared camera to detect any abnormal heating that might be due to defects on the surface of the module as illustrated in Figure 1.