Photovoltaic Faults: A comparative overview of detection and identification methods

During the last decade, exponential growth in energy production by Photovoltaic systems (PVS) has been observed. Although very promising concerning energy production, PVS are often prone to faults that arise either due to environmental conditions or to the quality of materials used for their manufacturing and handling during installation. If these faults are left untreated, a risk arises both to the operation of the system itself (risk of destruction) and to its very ability to produce energy reliably. This paper discusses methods for fault detection and identification on the DC side of the photovoltaic systems. The methods are studied for their ability to identify various fault types as well as their complexity and limitations.