1. Operation and maintanance of PV Systmes 11: :00 Operation, fixed versus tracked Systems, Fault detection, Energy prediction and energy gains

2. Life time cost of a PV System Factors of Influence
Meteorologic conditions at the Location (radiation, temperature, fog/mist/haze, wind…)
Quality of the Design & Installation
Orientation, Inclination, shading, …
Mismatch, Cable losses, Inverter-choice
MPP of Inverter
Maintenance (cleaning necessary?, check of operation,…)
Most maintenance needed for Battery systems
Changing feed in tariffs?
Lifetime of > 20 Yrs?

3. Maintenance
Schedule maintenance twice a year. Around noon on a sunny day is an ideal time to perform maintenance.
A homeowner with neither the necessary instrumentation nor the electrical knowledge might consider contracting with an electrician to perform maintenance and inspection of the PV system.
To be checked:
Inverter, respectively energy output
Modules (dirt, leaves, breakages, etc…)
Cables, Switches,…(“BoS”)

4. Maintenance checklist
Daily:
Inverter – operational? might be automatically
Monthly:
Energy yield control, might be automatically
Generator: Dirt, dust, .. Mounting, easily visible defects?
Semi annually:
Cables (animals?, UV?, over voltage damage?)
Connection box: animals, Insects,…

5. PV System under heavy conditions
Hochschwab, Styria, 2150 m

6. Solar Tracker Systems

7. Tracked Solar Systems

9. SOLON Hilber – Matrei/Brenner
Mitarbeiter
Gut Erlasee/D

10. A photovoltaic tracker…
…is a device for orienting a solar photovoltaic panel toward the sun.
The sun's position in the sky varies both with the seasons and time of day as the sun moves across the sky.
Solar powered equipment works best when pointed at or near the sun, so a solar tracker can increase the effectiveness of such equipment over any fixed position, at the cost of additional system complexity.
There are many types of solar trackers, of varying costs, sophistication, and performance.
In sunny conditions, compared to a fixed mount, a single axis tracker increases annual output by approximately 30%, and a dual axis tracker an additional 6%.
The more direct radiation, the more increase achieved by a tracking systems.
For mid/northern European conditions (with ~ 50% of diffuse radiation) up to additional 25% will be reached typically.

11. Source: Richard Perez, home power 101 / june & july 2004