Functioning and Detection of Solar Panels

Functioning and Detection of solar panels
Project Guide: Dr. Hamid Abdi
Student name: Vipul Kumar Mulkalapally
Student ID: 217244955
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Contents
1. Introduction:..............................................................................................................................4
2. Project Aim and Objective:.........................................................................................................5
1.1. Problem summary..............................................................................................................6
1.2. Research Strategy...............................................................................................................6
1.3. Solar Panel Model:.............................................................................................................6
1.4. Short circuit and open circuit equations:..........................................................................10
1.5. Size of Array:....................................................................................................................10
3. Literature Review.....................................................................................................................10
4. Detailed Methodology..............................................................................................................12
References........................................................................................................................................18
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Figure 1 Solar movement summer and winter...................................................................................4
Figure 2 Solar cell modeling...............................................................................................................6
Figure 3 I-V characteristics.................................................................................................................7
Figure 4 Accurate PV modeling..........................................................................................................8
Figure 5 Loss spots of PV..................................................................................................................14
Figure 6 Machine learning basic flow chart......................................................................................15
Figure 7 Sensor and meters of Photovoltaic plant...................................................................................17
Figure 8 Project Gantt chart.............................................................................................................16
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1. Introduction:
As per the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) solar installed capacity
worldwide is around 23 GW in 2018 which is 8 times higher from 2014, looking at the
figures the implementation and success of solar are the highest amount other existing
renewable energy sources. [1]. With the increase in population and the use of fuels as
primary energy source is increasing which add up the air pollution due to burning of fossil
fuel such as coal, and other, which increase the green house effect and global warming, the
use of such fuels needs to be minimized using alternate energy sources such as
photovoltaic, wind, fuel cell, tidal, geothermal, biogas, electric vehicles etc. Another issue
with fossil fuel is depleting at fast rate, conservation is needed to save or utilize such fuels
in important task or processes. The readily and easily available source is solar energy which
can be utilize in many applications using small setups such as solar collector for cooking
purpose, solar base water tube for water heating, use of solar for vehicles and solar panels
for electricity. However, the efficiency and the conversion rate is low for electricity use.
Small residential home requires to setup panel of at least 2kW for all time use with back of
battery which increase the overall cost of setup of solar for home use. One of the reasons
for least acceptance of solar is high cost of installation and maintenance requirement, how
ever cost of maintenance is less.
Figure 1 Solar movement summer and winter
Shading is the big issue with the photovoltaic system, it ultimately decreases the efficiency
and performance of the array and may also cause damage to arrays. Whenever subjected to
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shades the current would go to lower value. So basic construction is in such a way if one of
the arrays subjected to shades and all the cells carrying the same amount of current due to
shading on one array entire string will have reduced current at the same time power rating
also get reduced. Some types of shading are avoidable while other are natural like clouds,
and change in position of the sun in winter and summer need to change the panel direction
or angle.
In this report literature survey is carried out on use of solar and fault detection methods for
industrial and solar plants. After performing literature review research gaps and research
objective were finalized.
2. Project Aim and Objective:
The report aim is to find the characteristic and function of the photovoltaic panels, there
behavior under different types of faults, monitoring and the detection of faults which are
subjected in photovoltaic arrays.
2.1 Problem summary
The whole study of the project is focused on monitoring of photovoltaic panel it is very
important to understand and target the project on the monitoring and fault detection
methods of photovoltaic array. Since solar energy readily come from solar though efficient
and effective method is needed to collect and concentrate the energy at one place. The use
of solar minimize the pollution and other issues compared to the other fossil fuel base
technology. Solar panels are place on rooftop or the ground surface area where the solar
energy is available without any shadow. Most of area around the world has the availability
of solar for average 8-10 hours and during peak time sufficient energy is available to cater
the load and also to store the energy in the form of battery backup for later use. In its place
on rooftop the panels are less its easy to analyze the panel faults by visual inspection
method, by checking the hot spots, wiring connections, fuses, charge controller faults, and
inverter faults. But for large size of solar plants of capacity in terms of kW to MW it
becomes very difficult to analyze the faults using visual inspection method, in such case
aerial thermal imaging, drone technology, data base analysis etc. are the feasible solution.
2.2 Research Strategy
The use of data for the primary analysis is very important, research here conducted is initial
stage based on existing literature, realistic data, and analysis of data. It is broadly classified
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as qualitative research and quantitative research,
2.3 Solar Panel Model:
The model is derived from the mechanism of its working in energy conversion mode and
various parameter need to be considered while making an electrical equivalent model of the
photovoltaic cells. The figure below shows the equivalent circuit of a photovoltaic system
Figure 2 Solar cell modeling
It consists of nonlinear equation and the current quantity the equation in terms of voltage
can be given as
I =I ph−I o (e
V + I Rs
Vt −1 )
and
V t =V + I Rs
Vt
Where:
T is the junction temperature unit is K
V is the PV terminal voltage unit is V
k is the Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38×10−23 (J/K)
I is the PV cell terminal current unit is A
Vt – PV cell thermal voltage (V)
If – photocurrent (A)
Io – dark saturation current (A)
Rs – cell series resistance (Ω)
A is the p-n junction ideality factor
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