PES brings you the latest exciting news from EKO. With the constant increase of PV projects globally and new standards in place, there is an increasing requirement for a compliant and cost-effective solution to monitor plant performance.
Last year was another successful year for the Photovoltaic (PV) market, with approximately 96 GW of PV installed globally. Following this trend, 2018 is set to surpass 2017 with nearly 105 GW of PV projects forecasted, an increase of 10%. This substantial increase would have been even higher, were it not for the sanctions on new solar projects by Chinese government entities.
Worldwide PV investment and development is set to maintain its stellar performance for the foreseeable future – for example, the European market, after several years of stagnation, is now entering a period of rapid development and investment, with a forecasted 14GW of PV installed per year by 2022.
With this growing increase in PV investment and development, the industry is becoming more aware of the importance of performance monitoring. Optimal energy output of a PV plant is essential to ensure an adequate return on investment, and this can only be assured with continuous performance monitoring of the yield and efficiency of PV plants. In addition, scheduling ongoing maintenance can be more appropriately planned with effective monitoring.
This performance monitoring concerns the area with the greatest impact, i.e. Solar Irradiance, however there are other metrological parameters which could impact on PV performance, such as ambient temperature, wind and rainfall – these should also be monitored. Continuously monitoring on-site metrological data will reveal certain conditions that could have a negative effect on the efficiency of the PV plant i.e. shadowing, soling and panel temperature.
To ensure the industry is able optimize future PV performance, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) released a new standard in 2017: Photovoltaic system performance – Part 1: Monitoring (61724-1). This standard details the minimum requirements to achieve a specific classification of the accuracy of the Solar plant monitoring.
