Performance and reliability evaluation of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) power plants

Christopher Raupp; Sai Tatapudi; Bulent Bicer; Govindasamy Tamizhmani

doi:10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356185

Performance and reliability evaluation of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) power plants

Christopher Raupp, Sai Tatapudi, Bulent Bicer, Govindasamy Tamizhmani

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Performance and reliability evaluation and analysis of three concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems or power plants are presented at the string levels excluding the thermal and module level analyses. These plants are located in Arizona and were commissioned in mid-2012 (about 2 years old). The strings in all three power plants are operating between 79% and 0% of the rated capacity, and the average string operating capacity is only 34%. This paper indicates that the primary reason for power drop or complete loss of power in these CPV plants is due to misalignments in the tracking system. It was found that due to thermal stressing, wind loading, and tracker drift, tracking misalignment challenging the tracker controller was the most severe issue for performance drop or complete loss. This paper indicates that the reliability issues that need to be addressed by the CPV industry are not just on the cell level, but also on the precision of the systems' tracking.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)	9781479979448
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356185
State	Published - Dec 14 2015
Event	42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015 - New Orleans, United States Duration: Jun 14 2015 → Jun 19 2015

Other

Other	42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
Country	United States
City	New Orleans
Period	6/14/15 → 6/19/15

Keywords

concentrated photovoltaic
CPV
performance degradation
reliability
tracker accuracy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

Access to Document

10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356185

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Performance and reliability evaluation of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) power plants. / Raupp, Christopher; Tatapudi, Sai; Bicer, Bulent; Tamizhmani, Govindasamy.

2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2015. 7356185.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Raupp, C, Tatapudi, S, Bicer, B & Tamizhmani, G 2015, Performance and reliability evaluation of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) power plants. in 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015., 7356185, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015, New Orleans, United States, 6/14/15. https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356185

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