PV plant digital mapping for modules’ defects detection by unmanned aerial vehicles

Abstract

Nowadays plant monitoring and control of renewable energy sources can take advantage of the use of unmanned aerial technologies. This manuscript aims to develop an image post-processing tool for remote aerial images able to help operation and maintenance operators in photovoltaic (PV) defects detection using light unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In particular, PV systems deployed in the field in the last ten years show often critical behaviour with a range of failures able to compromise the performance and energy yield of the power plants, thus they can greatly benefit of such novel technologies and tools. The described procedures are here tested on real plant data, with different kind of sensors, in order to find out potential advantages in fast fault detection tasks, using an automatic system for PV plants’ mapping. The results of this research will be reported in order to provide an understanding of potential impact of image processing techniques based on UAV in the renewable energy sector.