Degradation diagnosis system of photovoltaic panels with mobile application

Abstract

Recently, the number of buildings and houses in which photovoltaic (PV) systems are installed has increased. However, an issue with the efficiency of the PV system and the degradation phenomenon has been revealed. Consumers who benefit from the PV system experience difficulties monitoring and controlling it because a PV diagnosis system is heavy and expensive to install at home. Furthermore, the existing diagnosis system is not coordinated with a home energy management system. In addition, the accurate performance evaluation of the PV system is required for energy management. Therefore, a new degradation diagnosis system for PV panels for household consumers is proposed in this paper. Additionally, a mobile-type home gateway that has various management applications is proposed. It is demonstrated that, with this mobile-type home gateway applied to the proposed system, consumers can monitor the degradation of the PV system, analyze the efficiency of the PV panels, and save energy at home by using a mobile-type home gateway.