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How to Maximize Solar Energy Generation with Digital Asset Management

There is a general agreement that digital transformation is the next step for the solar photovoltaic industry. As plant income/MW is falling, IRR is going down due to market maturing and di-risking of assets and yield, and operations expenses are increasing, business processes must become more efficient, integrated and autonomous. 

Digital Transformation in Practice

So asset owners and operators are more interested than before in optimizing their existing plants using digital transformation tools and techniques. But where does the buzzword meet reality?

Digital transformation is all about the data. Fortunately, there is plenty of data out there! All we need is to use it effectively. This is done by data integration from different systems; data optimization and noise elimination; smart data analysis; and AI & machine learning processes. These methods enable analytics systems to provide data-driven insights and automation.

The Existing PV Software Landscape

Industry-specific computing tools include two major types of systems:

  1. Financial asset management systems: These kinds of systems allow the management of financial and operational processes such as billing, logistics and enterprise resource planning (ERP). They provide, among other things, various business documents, contracts, invoices, workflows and ticketing capabilities.
  2. Monitoring systems: These kinds of systems provide real-time asset visualization of the solar plants. The monitoring systems mainly serve as sources of raw technical data collection and logging.

But how will we know which technical issues to address, where, when and how?

There has been several available data analysis tools and services that tried to address these issues: thermal imaging (drones) solutions, preventive maintenance, consulting, local tools (e.g. customized Excel tables), and manual I–V Curves. However, all these methods provide very limited analysis in terms of accuracy and scope, and cannot automatically apply the customers’ business logic. So how can we reach the right conclusions?

Digital Asset Management

The answer is clear: we need a THIRD integrated software layer, between the financial asset management systems and the monitoring systems, that analyses the raw technical data; finds and quantifies performance issues and their respected recoverable energy; and then provides a smart corrective action plan. This kind of AI analytics layer, which we call “digital asset management”, is completely data-driven, proactive, prioritized and ROI-oriented. It is where the users’ business logic really kicks in, as they can make the data “work for them” – whether they are solar asset managers, owners or O&M. We believe this is the future of solar PV optimization.

Here are some of the processes that solar asset managers and operators can carry out by using a digital asset management system:

  • Carry out only relevant O&M activities, not procedures
  • Use data-enabled drones when relevant, not for the sake of doing it
  • Gain full visibility of all the different components in the portfolio
  • Perform I–V Curve measurements only when needed
  • Understand when they should file a warranty claim to the manufacturer
  • Identify low performing inverters
  • Identify disconnected strings
  • Identify heavily degrading modules
  • Identify faulty irradiation sensors
  • Establish an ROI-based revamping plans for their assets

The Impact and Benefits of Digital Asset Management

Digital asset management allows solar professionals to take their existing systems and investments to the next level, without investing in new plants, hardware or personnel. By making the existing technical and financial solutions completely data-driven, asset owners and managers can stop guessing – they KNOW what to do. The O&M teams can stop performing unnecessary and laborious manual tasks, just specific and focused ones that are actually required in the current time. This empowers these teams, boost performance and saves costs, and in our view, it is by far the most tangible and valuable software layer for the asset manager.

Digital asset management has some clear benefits. Based on the analysis of more than 4GW of solar assets by our proprietary DeepSolar™ system, identifying the actual recoverable energy in the plant adds 4% to 5% of yield on average, and reducing the operational costs with on-demand smart maintenance can reach up to 30% of O&M savings.

By getting ROI-driven and prioritized action items, asset managers can clearly see what are the performance issues, where they are in the plant, how and when to solve them, and sometimes not less important – whether fixing them is a worthwhile investment. They can do it by applying their own business logic, work processes and thresholds.

The solar industry must adopt an automated and proactive approach, and base its actions on analysed data instead of manual processes or mere “feelings”. This is the only way it can thrive and strengthen its competitiveness in these challenging times.

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Why Euro Efficiency Is Important?

The conversion efficiency of a solar inverter heavily depends upon its load and DC voltage input. Calculating efficiency demands very accurate data. Missing points or corrupted values should be removed from the calculation so the result is not biased.

There is a standard conversion in Europe (and others in other continents) called Euro Efficiency, that uses multiple conversion efficiency measurements taken at different output power, according to a standard formula, to calculate efficiency. It is calculated throughout the entire operation range, and avoids mixing performances between different power load conditions.

Euro Efficiency is important because it addresses significant differences in functioning in different currents. Additionally, it is the main way that inverter vendors communicate their inverters’ state of health with clients, in accordance to defined input DC voltage taken from a datasheet.

The benefit of Raycatch’s DeepSolar technology is that it is the only diagnostics system that automatically presents the performance according to the Euro Efficiency metrics system (as well as the CEC standard), for every inverter, on a daily basis.

DeepSolar displays the inverter efficiency over time. It also displays inverter efficiency drops and rises, to help find immediate corrective actions. Using DeepSolar, clients are provided with a list of inverters with Euro Efficiency that are significantly lower than the datasheet value, which can therefore allow them to make much better warranty claims.

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Eventbook – Deepsolar’s New Tracking Feature

Raycatch is excited to launch Deepsolar’s Eventbook, a brand-new feature to its system. The idea behind Eventbook is to track all the events happening in the solar portfolio, in order to provide a faster and more accurate response. This response will lead to higher yield of recoverable energy and thus higher revenues.

Eventbook’s in-depth tracking gives more insights to the work process and important changes in the assets. This allows users to focus more clearly on corrective actions needed for better plant outcomes. It also helps users track the O&M events on a daily or weekly level, to better control the contractor technicians’ activities.

Some features that Eventbook displays are the incidents of downtime, indicants of disconnection, and any sudden drops in string performance and efficiency of the inverters that are created by local issues, which can be then solved by a maintenance task. It also shows communication issues, like non-transmitting components for stings, inverters and irradiation sensors. 

Eventbook is able to detect disconnections even when there is CB or inverter sensors with up to 30 strings under it. With that, it provides energy-weighted losses qualifications.

Eventbook also provides a visual display for all kinds of events. For example:

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Raycatch and Solarif Group Strengthen Their Strategic Alliance in the Solar Industry

Raycatch and Solarif Group decided to further strengthen their strategic alliance in the solar industry. The two companies have extended their existing agreement to further develop their joint business cooperation and commercial initiatives.

Solarif Group is a worldwide independent, specialized advisor for multiple aspects of the solar industry, such as insurance, risk assessments and matching services. It also helps structuring, analysing and assessing PV projects and arranges project finance or refinance.

Haggai Hofland, Raycatch CEO and Co-founder, said: “As part of the agreement, Solarif will distribute our DeepSolar™ system in the Dutch PV market. DeepSolar™ is a cloud-based, fully-automated AI diagnostics system that delivers a 360° view of PV assets, and provides their owners, managers and operators with actionable insights and decision-making capabilities.”

Harry Wolkenfelt, Solarif Group CEO and Founder, added: “Solarif offers an extensive package of services for risk management and quality assurance of solar power installations. Raycatch’s DeepSolar™ system will show our customers exactly where in their assets there are performance issues, how to solve them and whether fixing them is a worthwhile investment, thus reducing their operational costs and boosting their ROI.”

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New Podcast About Democratizing Solar Plant Management

Our Chairman and Co-founder, Michael (Mike) Goldstein, was recently featured on SAP.IO Foundry’s Energenius podcast, during which he explained how Raycatch’s AI-driven digital asset management system DeepSolar, automates and optimizes solar PV plants. Listen to the complete podcast.

Mile illustrated that Raycatch’s system enables customers to get clear and rapid insights on their operations based on their existing raw data. This allows for improved decision making and more focused O&M prioritization. Additionally, he explained how merging Raycatch’s capabilities with that of SAP’s allows customers to get software support in ERP and management, in addition to Raycatch’s advanced automatic diagnostic tools.

Mike emphasized that Raycatch’s vast experience in solar energy has led the company to discover the phenomenon that people aren’t using their own data to enhance their plant operations. Raycatch maximized upon this opportunity by creating a state-of-the-art data technology, which helps their customers leverage solar insights, increase energy yield, reduce operational costs, and improve returns on investments.

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Solar Finance & Investment Europe

Raycatch will be presenting at Solar Finance & Investment Europe tomorrow, the 3rd of February!

Join us between 4:10 – 5:10 CET for a round table discussion on the role of AI in the solar industry. We will talk about how AI is contributing to the bottom line, and you will have a chance to come into the conversation, so come ready with lots of questions!

The hosts will be:

Michael Goldstein, Chairman and Co-Founder at Raycatch
Luis Castillo, Senior Solution Manager at Huawei
Will Hitchcock, CEO and Founder at Above

We hope that you can join us tomorrow! You can register for FREE using this link: https://solarenergyevents.com/sfieu21/ai-guest

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What Are the Most Common Causes for Solar Performance Issues?

Solar energy is absolutely great, but it only works when the sun is out and the PV equipment is operating properly. We can’t control the sun but hey, at least we can make sure that our plants are in the best position to get energy from it!

There are some root causes for solar underperformance that we encounter on a daily basis with customers using our technical asset management and optimization system. We summarized below the main causes for performance issues that we are usually exposed to in PV assets.

Normal Equipment Wear and Tear

  • Module degradation; including potential-induced degradation (PID), soldering in modules and connection boxes, back sheet and thin film issues
  • Inverter wear-out
  • Sun tracking system malfunctions
  • Wear-out and local failures in other equipment (BoS) such as irradiance sensors, fuses, connectors and cables.

Human-related Issues Derived from Lack of Analysed Data

  • Ineffective operations which are not data-driven – mainly lack of specific cleaning, grass cutting, snow clearing, etc.
  • Ineffective manual repairing or long response times
  • Improper or incomplete installation of equipment
  • Untimely or impartial preventive maintenance
  • Additional service issues

Environmental Effects That Are Not Directly Related to the PV Asset

  • Any form of overgrown vegetation, such as grass, shrubs or trees
  • Industrial agricultural pollution
  • Soiling issues
  • Local impact of animals, such as rodents, birds, sheep, etc.

With daily use of solar diagnostics systems that use AI to normalize and analyse the PV asset data, such as our own DeepSolar™, it is possible to identify very specific performance issues, making the assets more efficient and getting the most from the sun.

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LID vs PID: What’s degrading your solar panels?

PV modules may experience one or both of two forms of degradation: Potential Induced Degradation (PID) and Light Induced Degradation (LID). PID refers to degradation induced by high voltages. On the other hand, LID refers to degradation that occurs due to sunlight.

LID – Light Induced Degradation

PV modules experience degradation naturally without it being owing to the flow of electrons across p-n junctions within the module. Modules experience power loss rates of approximately 3% within the first year of usage. Thereafter, a phenomenon known as power stabilization is said to occur, which refers to lower levels of power loss in subsequent years of usage at rates typically around 0.8%. This indicates that the rates of degradation are most prominent initially. LID of a PV module refers to the power loss and other loss of performance of crystalline p-type boron doped silicon solar cells after the first few hours upon exposure to sunlight. LID typically varies between 1-3%. The degradation of cells by sunlight is highly dependent on the quality of the wafer manufactured and is the result of a defect known as “boron oxygen complex”. This defect occurs owing to oxygen being trapped in the silicon as part of the “Czochralski process” during manufacture.

PID – Potential Induced Degradation

The second form of degradation PID caused by voltages as high as 1000 V and above together with high temperatures and humidity. Furthermore, the accumulation of dirt and the degradation of glass can catalyse the process owing to the release of sodium ions. Modules that have experienced such degradation generally contain some black cells that are non-functional and found near the frame. This occurs due to a large flow of electrons through such cells, due to the differential in voltage across the pane.
The IEC standard 62804 created to assess the capability of PV modules to withstand high voltages and not experience any degradation as a result. The proposed method involves the subjection of PV modules to a DC voltage bias of magnitude of 1000 V at a humidity of 85% rH and a temperature of 60 ºC, for a period of 96 hours. The graph shows the Pmpp/W rating (Pmpp is the panel maximum power) together with the pictures of the panel exhibiting Electroluminescence before and after the test

Solar panel PID stress test graph [Source: http://sinovoltaics.com/quality-control/pid-lid-devastating-phenomena-pv-plants/]

It can be seen from the above graphic that the PV experienced a power loss of around 25% over the course of the PID test. As per the IEC standard 60924, for the module to meet the required standard, this measurement must not exceed 5%. It may be argued that there is variability across PV modules. However, the said standard has been decided based on tests on a large number of various PV panels.

Implications

PID and LID are two different sources of degradation of cells in PV panels and are therefore ratings pertaining to these phenomena should be carefully considered. Although the phenomena may be well known among installers of such panels, ratings are often neglected and thus affect the long-term life of the PV panel. This is particularly important for the purpose of making accurate forecasts pertaining to energy generation. In the absence of PID and LID being considered, the panel will incorrectly be thought to be performing lower than its rated efficiency. Sophisticated measurement tools allow for such metrics to be recalculated based on deviations of real performance from predicted performance.

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Solar efficiency: are defective panels hurting your bottom line?

The solar industry is booming, yet plant operators are being affected by underperforming panels. To earn a profit in this global, dynamic market, solar farm managers must answer an important question: how can you ensure your solar array is working well?
Normally, Operations and Maintenance (O&M) teams periodically check performance, usually by analyzing the graphs on the monitoring solution and sampling a portion of your plant’s panels. But this can be expensive, and won’t give you a detailed account of all your panels. If unsampled panels are defective, or something goes wrong outside of testing, your profits start to shrink. And expired warranties only makes things worse.
At Raycatch, we believe there’s a better way.
DeepSolar from Raycatch gives you daily diagnostics on all your solar panels. Using sophisticated AI technology, DeepSolar tells you where defective panels are and what’s wrong with them. We’ll then work with you to create a recovery strategy that aligns with your business goals – either helping you claim under warranty, repair faults, or replace panels and strings.
DeepSolar could grow your revenue 2-7%, as well as saving you 12-20% on O&M costs. Already, we’ve helped one of our clients replace 20% of their panels absolutely free. Optimising your solar plant ensures your getting value for money, but more importantly, helps maximise profit in an industry working hard to make the world a better place.
Due to the fast growing of solar energy installations in the world, the operators need to maximise the output of their panels, or risk underperforming. An inefficient solar farm reduces returns on investment, endangers market share, and restricts expansion. It’s crystal clear that understanding solar efficiency is vital – the question is, how successful has your monitoring strategy been?
Operations and Maintenance (O&M) teams can only do so much with limited budgets. How often do you run I-V tests on your panels and strings? Once, maybe twice per year? Plus a diagnostic if output drops significantly?
Given the pressure to keep costs low, it’s unsurprising that O&M teams test just a few times a year, and in many cases, only test a sample of components. We’ve seen testing of 1-5 MW solar farms using samples of just 20-100 panels. There’s a global shortage of solar engineering talent, and consequently, labour costs are high.
But what if you could do daily diagnostic tests on all your panels, automatically, for a fraction of the cost of O&M testing? What if you could use this information to repair or replace defective panels – even strings – before they impact performance? That’s exactly what DeepSolar does.
DeepSolar conducts daily diagnostic testing on your entire solar array without the need for extra hardware or staff. We gather plant performance data from your sensors, combine it with metadata, and normalise it for temperature, irradiance, dust, pollen, shading, and other sources of “noise”. This gives us virtual I-V curves that are as robust as those taken under laboratory conditions. We then correlate the data with physical and electrical models and process the results through our AI algorithm to give a full diagnostic report of your array’s performance.
Light induced degradation (LID) is an inevitable consequence of the technology most solar farms employ, and potential induced degradation (PID) can also be an issue in some installations (you are welcome to read about it in our next blog). But neither LID nor PID should affect your bottom line. Frequent, regular monitoring and fast remediation ensure your panels are working at their best, all year round.
We can pinpoint defects to an individual string, saving hours of diagnostic testing, and determine how much lost power you could restore, and how to recover it in the most economical way. We diagnose exactly what kind of fault the panel is experiencing, whether it’s sun exposure, poor coatings, or microcracks, and help you prioritise which problems need dealt with first to meet your plant’s targets.
The solar industry is rife with players, and to get ahead, your panels need to be at the top of their game. That means understanding, on a deeper level, how well your panels are performing all the time.
To discuss how DeepSolar can improve the efficiency of your solar array, please get in touch.

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