I want to talk about an obscure term in PV project maintenance, heard from Nicola Waters of @PushEnergyLimit , because if it isn't a widely used term it should be. If you don't think so, fight me, or, y'know, tell me politely why you don't.
The term is "sick bay approach". 1/n
The term is "sick bay approach". 1/n
@PushEnergyLimit A major cause of production losses in PV plants is "module mismatch", where the worst module in a string drags the whole production of a string of mostly-good modules down. This can develop over years if some modules develop faults or are broken.
(2/n)
(2/n)
@PushEnergyLimit If you detect faults in certain PV modules - by IR imaging or visual inspection, usually - you can swap them around so that all the bad modules are in one part of the plant, ideally with the inverter that's looking poorly too. This frees the good modules to produce well. (3/n)
@PushEnergyLimit Nicola Waters gave (in 2018 I think?) an example of a UK solar project which improved performance 5% just by moving all the bad modules together to a "sick bay". And honestly that's amazing.
So does anyone else use this term in PV O&M? 4/4)
So does anyone else use this term in PV O&M? 4/4)
