Aging of solar PV plants and mitigation of their consequences

Abstract

Photovoltaic solar fields are planned to operate during many years, so the monitoring of the plant parameters and performances undoubtedly represents an adequate way to ensure a safe and long term operation for the overall system. Values around 10%/year of photovoltaic system degradation in 1991 fall to 12% in 25 years in PV panels using modules manufactured after 2000, mainly due the recent technology advances seen in the field of renewable. Obviously, these results require that system operation should follow an adequate maintenance. In this work, the main failures in the most critical components of conventional PV solar plants are described and ways to mitigate them are recommended, in order to achieve a reduction of unexpected overthrow occurrences. The photos presented were taken in solar PV plants located in Portugal.