It has already been 8 years since I first reported here in a blog about field tests with electroluminescence, also known as outdoor electroluminescence. A lot has happened in the meantime, such tests now having established themselves as a standard method of fault analysis on photovoltaic modules. That’s reason enough to give another updated overview […]
Read articleCreeping losses in the output of photovoltaic installations
This article describes a typical fault in solar modules which results in a creeping reduction in power output, without the operator noticing this immediately. The phenomenon was already described previously in this blog article. Because it occurs relatively frequently, I would like to explain it again in more detail here.
Read articleThe photovoltaic industry needs a professional approach to problems
If things are not failing, you are not innovative enough Progress and technical innovation require new things to be tried. Elon Musk summed this up by saying: “If things are not failing, you are not innovative enough”. No one who tries new things can fully estimate all future, problematic contingencies, and avoid all risks in […]
Read articlePhotovoltaics as a cause of fire
This topic had already drifted through the press some years ago and prompted me at that time, in 2010, to write this blog article. Back then, the topic could still be dismissed as “fake news” due to a lack hitherto of properly documented cases in which photovoltaic facilities could be uniquely identified as fire sources. […]
Read articleFinding shorted bypass diodes in photovoltaic systems
The search for defective bypass diodes has been a frequently discussed blog topic here. Just when I thought I had already described typical thermograms and electro-luminescence recordings in detail, fellow drone pilot Thomas Reusch notified me of a case which we then jointly pondered. A small experiment in the garden behind our office made it possible to […]
Read articleHow short-circuiting a solar array can help with faultfinding
I have already described a number of methods here in the blog that you can use to discover and pinpoint almost any fault that can occur in a photovoltaic system – or so I thought. But then I came across a “tough cookie”, where it took several attempts to locate the cause of the reduced […]
Read articleLocating broken wires in solar systems
Here in our blog, we have already described many ways of speeding up fault location in photovoltaic systems. But there is one rather mundane fault that we haven’t yet discussed: a break in the wiring on the DC side of a module string. This kind of fault is relatively easy to find. If the string […]
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