Progress and trends in fault diagnosis for renewable and sustainable energy system based on infrared thermography: A review

Abstract Renewable and sustainable energy (RSE) system has a significant potential to mitigate carbon emissions and diversify the electricity generation portfolios acknowledged by international policy. Faults and damages are inevitable during either fabrication or lifetime of the key equipment of the RSE system. Owing to the high operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, it is essential to develop reliable and remote detection techniques for key equipment of the RSE system. In this paper, the research progress in infrared thermography (IRT) fault diagnosis for the RSE system is reviewed in detail. For the RSE generation system, the applications of IRT in parabolic trough receiver, wind turbine blade, and photovoltaic cell are reviewed. For the RSE transmission and transformation system, this work focuses on detecting damage in insulators and IGBT. For the RSE storage system, fault diagnosis in proton exchange membrane fuel cell and lithium-ion battery based on IRT are reviewed. Moreover, state-of-the-art methods have been comprehensively summarized and highlighted. Besides, challenges and future trends in NDT and fault diagnosis for the RSE system based on IRT are also discussed and analyzed. Finally, this paper will serve as a guide for defect detection and fault diagnosis of RSE key equipment based on IRT. It has essential academic and industrial application value in the fields of RSE system security control and cost-saving.