Performance analytics for utility-scale PV power plants

Due to the extremely rapid growth in the PV industry, most capacity is only a few years old. Due to a dramatic shift in technology to new high-efficiency architectures, much of this is based on young products with only a few years of field exposure. There is therefore a lack of available data related to performance, degradation and fault rates in modern PV power plants. This leaves investors in the broader energy sector challenged when trying to make accurate and realistic predictions of energy yield and returns on investment. With record low costs of installation, the O&M costs make up an increasing share of the total cost of solar power. There is a large variation across the industry in terms of both cost and efficiency of O&M. Therefore, O&M of PV plants has become one of the most important R&D topics worldwide. One result of this is the emergence of new technology specifically developed to enable more cost-effective, data-driven O&M. This includes numerous new algorithms and instruments targeting performance monitoring. Although much research has been published, the understanding of how the data from these new methods relates to actual loss in production, as well as how it is best put to practical use in utility-scale PV, is sorely lacking. IPN PEANUTS is designed to be at the forefront of this development. In the project, we will extend an existing, proprietary numerical toolbox for PV power plant analytics with concrete new functionality to enable more accurate determination of long-term performance, degradation and fault generation and evolution in utility-scale PV power plants. By building on the existing platform, efficient testing, validation and implementation of the new functionality will be secured. The results from IPN PEANUTS will contribute to increased production, reduced O&M expenses and prolonged asset lifetime. The partners in IPN PEANUTS are Scatec, Equinor, Prediktor and IFE.

Due to the extremely rapid growth in the PV industry, most capacity is only a few years old. Due to a dramatic shift in technology to new high-efficiency architectures, much of this is based on young products with only a few years of field exposure. There is therefore a lack of available data related to performance, degradation and fault rates in modern PV power plants. This leaves investors in the broader energy sector challenged when trying to make accurate and realistic predictions of energy yield and returns on investment. With record low costs of installation, the O&M costs make up an increasing share of the total cost of solar power. There is a large variation across the industry in terms of both cost and efficiency of O&M. Therefore, O&M of PV plants has become one of the most important R&D topics worldwide. One result of this is the emergence of new technology specifically developed to enable more cost-effective, data-driven O&M. This includes numerous new algorithms and instruments targeting performance monitoring. Although much research has been published, the understanding of how the data from these new methods relates to actual loss in production, as well as how it is best put to practical use in utility-scale PV, is sorely lacking. IPN PEANUTS is designed to be at the forefront of this development. In the project, we will extend an existing, proprietary numerical toolbox for PV power plant analytics with concrete new functionality to enable more accurate determination of long-term performance, degradation and fault generation and evolution in utility-scale PV power plants. By building on the existing platform, efficient testing, validation and implementation of the new functionality will be secured. The results from IPN PEANUTS will contribute to increased production, reduced O&M expenses and prolonged asset lifetime.