Power loss prognosis from thermographic images of PID affected silicon solar modules

• We proofed, that thermography is reliable to identify PID affected silicon modules.
• We used remote controlled multicopters for fast inspection of operating PV systems.
• PID affected silicon modules exhibit characteristic temperature patterns.
• Our prognosis procedure estimates power loss directly from thermography images.

The potential induced degradation (PID) of silicon solar modules was investigated in detail in the past years. Nevertheless, even new PV installations exhibit a significant power loss of the system due to PID damage. In this contribution, thermography imaging is shown to be a fast and reliable tool for the detection of PID affected modules to be used in a PV system under operation. Especially the usage of remote controlled multicopters, equipped with a thermographic camera system reduces time and effort to investigate a whole PV installation. PID affected modules yield characteristic temperature patterns in the thermographic images that are comparable to the intensity patterns observed by electroluminescence imaging. A prognosis procedure to directly give an estimate of the power loss of PID affected modules from thermographic images is presented. Hence, the power loss due to PID can be estimated without dismounting the concerned modules from the system. The procedure is successfully applied to a PV system containing modules with different levels of PID damage.