Over the past decade, the significance of solar photovoltaic (PV) system has played a major role due to the rapid growth in the solar PV industry. Reliability, efficiency and safety of solar PV systems can be enhanced by continuous monitoring of the system and detecting the faults if any as early as possible. Reduced real time power generation and reduced life span of the solar PV system are the results if the fault in solar PV system is found undetected. Therefore, it is mandatory to identify and locate the type of fault occurring in a solar PV system. The faults occurring in the solar PV system are classified as follows: physical, environmental, and electrical faults that are further classified into different types as described in this paper. Once a fault is located and detected, an appropriate diagnosis method needs to be used to rectify it. In this paper, a comprehensive review of diverse fault diagnosis techniques reported in various literature is listed and described. This paper helps the researchers to get an awareness of the various faults occurring in a solar PV system and enables them to choose a suitable diagnosis technique based on its performance metrics to rectify the fault occurring in solar PV systems.

Limited reserves of fossil fuels, rising environmental concerns, and a remarkable increase in electricity demand have led to the necessity of harnessing solar energy on a large scale. For this purpose, there has been a noticeable stimulation into photovoltaic power plants (PVPPs) over the last three decades, but the land requirement for PVPPs is still a handicap in many countries since valuable lands are considered for other purposes such as agriculture and livestock. For effective conservation of valuable lands and water resources, PVPPs are preferred to be installed on various water bodies such as oceans, seas, lagoons, lakes, rivers, dams, canals, wastewater treatment plants, irrigation ponds, fish farms, wineries, reservoirs, etc. PV systems on water bodies are called floating PVPPs, and they have outstanding advantages compared with land-based PVPPs including better energy generation owing to passive cooling effects, higher system efficiency and reliability, and lower dirt and dust accumulation on PV modules thus lower operating costs. There are also some significant environmental features provided by floating PVs. Shading effects due to PV coverage reduce water losses arising from evaporation. Moreover, algae growth is limited because of mitigated solar radiation, which yields better water quality. This review presents more insight on floating PVPPs in terms of several aspects such as electricity generation, system efficiency, reliability and sustainability, experimental applications and facilities in operation, water and carbon saving as well as challenges.

Due to the increasing demand for energy worldwide, photovoltaic (PV) cooling systems have become an important field of research in recent years. The most important factor affecting the performance of a solar PV cell is its operating temperature. For harvesting heat from solar PV systems, phase change material (PCM) is regarded as the most effective material. As a result, this study discusses and describes the effect of using PCM and nanoPCM (NPCM) in cooling PV cells. This research reviews the various feasible hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PVT)–PCM and PVT–NPCM methods used for cooling PV. The concept focusing on PV cooling technology is discussed where air, water and nanofluid are used as the working medium in combination with PCM and NPCM. It is observed that when high performance heat transfer and improved cooling rate are needed, active cooling methods are favoured, whereas passive cooling methods rely on themselves and don’t require extra power. It is also found that the effectiveness of applying PCM or NPCM for thermal control is heavily influenced by atmospheric air temperatures as well as the precise PCM or NPCM used. It is envisaged that this review will help new researchers better understand the qualities and capabilities of each cooling strategy. They are offered to help investigators quickly identify the basic science that led to the development of the thermal performance system and also improve the overall performance of the PV system.

Due to depleting fossil fuel reserves coupled with a climate crisis, sustainability is gaining ground, and electric vehicles (EVs) are emerging to be the new face of this field. However, the idea of EVs will be genuinely sustainable only if they are charged using renewable energy. This paper presents results from the design of a solar-powered EV charging station for an Indian context. PVsyst 7.2 software has been used for the system design. The analysis, based on the number of cars charged annually, the monthly variation in energy generation, the investment cost, and the decrease in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions using different module technologies for six Indian cities, has been deliberated. The results indicate that an off-grid 8.1 kWp system with two days of battery autonomy has the fewest unused energy losses, with a good performance ratio (PR). It can completely charge around 414 vehicles of 30 kWh battery capacity annually. This would help to reduce annual CO₂ emissions by approximately 7950 kg. For cities near the equator, maximum energy is produced during March or January, and for cities near the Tropic of Cancer, energy production maximizes during May–June. The overall system has better energy generation and economy when monocrystalline modules are used.