In recent years, the overwhelming growth of solar photovoltaics (PV) energy generation as an alternative to conventional fossil fuel generation has encouraged the search for efficient and more reliable operation and maintenance practices, since PV systems require constant maintenance for consistent generation efficiency. One option, explored recently, is artificial intelligence (AI) to replace conventional maintenance strategies. The growing importance of AI in various real-life applications, especially in solar PV applications, cannot be over-emphasized. This study presents an extensive review of AI-based methods for fault detection and diagnosis in PV systems. It explores various fault types that are common in PV systems and various AI-based fault detection and diagnosis techniques proposed in the literature. Of note, there are currently fewer literatures in this area of PV application as compared to the other areas. This is due to the fact that the topic has just recently been explored, as evident in the oldest paper we could obtain, which dates back to only about 15 years. Furthermore, the study outlines the role of AI in PV operation and maintenance, and the main contributions of the reviewed literatures.

Fault detection in PV arrays and inverters is critical for ensuring maximum efficiency and performance. Artificial intelligence (AI) learning can be used to quickly identify issues, resulting in a sustainable environment with reduced downtime and maintenance costs. As the use of solar energy systems continues to grow, the need for reliable and efficient fault detection and diagnosis techniques becomes more critical. This paper presents a novel approach for fault detection in photovoltaic (PV) arrays and inverters, combining AI techniques. It integrates Elman neural network (ENN), boosted tree algorithms (BTA), multi-layer perceptron (MLP), and Gaussian processes regression (GPR) for enhanced accuracy and reliability in fault diagnosis. It leverages its strengths for the accuracy and reliability of fault diagnosis. Feature engineering-based sensitivity analysis was utilized for feature extraction. The fault detection and diagnosis were assessed using several statistical criteria including PBAIS, MAE, NSE, RMSE, and MAPE. Two intelligent learning scenarios are carried out. The first scenario is conducted for PV array fault detection with DC power (DCP) as output. The second scenario is conducted for inverter fault detection with AC power (ACP) as the output. The proposed technique is capable of detecting faults in PV arrays and inverters, providing a reliable solution for enhancing the performance and reliability of solar energy systems. A real-world solar energy dataset is used to evaluate the proposed technique with results compared to existing detection techniques and obtained results showing that it outperforms existing fault detection techniques, achieving higher accuracy and better performance. The GPR-M4 optimization justified its reliably among all the models with MAPE = 0.0393 and MAE = 0.002 for inverter fault detection, and MAPE = 0.091 and MAE = 0.000 for PV array fault detection.

Generation of energy from renewable energy sources has been gaining momentum and popularity in recent years. This is owing to the global commitment to decelerate global warming, reduce greenhouse gas emission and avoid environmental pollution by cutting down fossil fuel-based generation to the barest minimum. Solar energy generation as an alternative is one of the most common renewable energy generation technologies in the world today. The technology however, has its setbacks and requires constant maintenance in order to maintain high generation efficiency and avoid faults and generation downtime. This study reviews the strategies and methods for mitigating the various faults associated with solar photovoltaic systems. It also attempts examining the effects of these strategies on the overall performance of photovoltaic systems.

Fault detection in PV arrays and inverters is critical for ensuring maximum efficiency and performance. Artificial intelligence (AI) learning can be used to quickly identify issues, resulting in a sustainable environment with reduced downtime and maintenance costs. As the use of solar energy systems continues to grow, the need for reliable and efficient fault detection and diagnosis techniques becomes more critical. This paper presents a novel approach for fault detection in photovoltaic (PV) arrays and inverters, combining AI techniques. It integrates Elman Neural Network (ENN), Boosted Tree Algorithms (BTA), Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP), and Gaussian Processes Regression (GPR) for enhanced accuracy and reliability in fault diagnosis. It leverages their strengths for accuracy and reliability of fault diagnosis. Feature engineering-based sensitivity analysis was utilized for feature extraction, the fault detection and diagnosis were assessed using several statistical criteria including PBAIS, MAE, NSE, RMSE, and MAPE. Two intelligent learning scenarios are carried out, the first scenario is done for PV array fault detection with DC power (DCP) as output. The second scenario is done for inverter fault detection with AC power (ACP) as the output. The proposed technique is capable of detecting faults in PV arrays and inverters, providing a reliable solution for enhancing the performance and reliability of solar energy systems. Real-world solar energy dataset is used to evaluate the proposed technique, with results compared to existing detection techniques and obtained results show that it outperforms existing fault detection techniques, achieving higher accuracy and better performance. The GPR-M4 optimization justified reliably among all the models with MAPE=0.0393, and MAE=0.002 for inverter fault detection and MAPE=0.091, and MAE=0.000 for PV array fault detection.

This paper proposes a methodology for planning photovoltaic connected to the grid with and without tracker systems focusing on the sizing and the performance. The methodology it was developed via a set of simulations of two photovoltaic solar systems of 2 200 kWp. We select two test systems located in important sites for developing solar power plants in the world, one is in the city of Petrolina, state of Pernambuco, Brazil and the second is in the state of La Guajira, Colombia. The inverter and the photovoltaic modules were selected accordingly to their technical characteristics to form a comparable PV array. The analysis was performed using a NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) tool, called System Advisor Model (SAM). This software was used to analyze the performance of the PV plant, determining the optimal spacing settings between strings of modules and the number of modules in series and in parallel, verifying the energy costs for each configuration. The sun tracking system with 1 axis is also compared with the fixed modules. The solar resource data used in the simulations were obtained from Meteonorm software and from the National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB) provided by the NREL, considering a typical meteorological year (TMY). The results shown that the number of panels per string are an important parameter for the planning phase of the solar plant.