A Quantitative and Computer-Aided Thermography-Based Diagnostics for PV Devices—Part II: Platform and Results

Abstract

This paper, Part II, deals with the software platform that implements the workflow described in Part I, i.e., a thermography-based diagnostics able to provide a detailed, clear, and unambiguous information on the health state of photovoltaic (PV) modules. The methodology, in fact, allows a numerical and qualitative evaluation of each cell of the PV module. In particular, this paper deeply describes the main features of the software platform and introduces the graphical user interface that makes the framework efficiently and effectively adoptable since it leads to the automatic generation of a report. In order to show the manifold features, three cases of study, which have been derived from a real monitoring survey, are discussed, highlighting the critical situations revealed neither with a direct observation of the infrared image nor with its manual processing: The first case in regard to a defected PV module and the second one an almost completely uniform module, while the third one deals with a dishomogeneous module.