%0 Journal Article
%A Doll, Bernd
%A Wittmann, Ernst
%A Lüer, Larry
%A Hepp, Johannes
%A Buerhop-Lutz, Claudia
%A Hauch, Jens
%A Brabec, Christoph
%A Peters, Ian Marius
%T Aerial photoluminescence imaging of photovoltaic modules
%J Physica status solidi / Rapid research letters
%V 17
%N 12
%@ 1862-6254
%C Weinheim
%I Wiley-VCH
%M FZJ-2023-02019
%P 202300059
%D 2023
%X On-site imaging of modules in photovoltaic systems requires contact-free techniques with high-throughput and low-cost for commercial relevance. Photoluminescence imaging satisfies these requirements, but it has so far not been used for aerial imaging. Such a system faces unique engineering and operating challenges, including the need to mount a light source on the drone and identifying module defects from images taken under low- and non-uniform irradiance. In this study, we present our in-house developed PLAI (photoluminescence aerial imaging) setup and we demonstrate that it can be used to identify defects even with a difference of excitation intensity of up to 50%. The setup consists of a hexa-copter aerial drone equipped with an illumination unit and a near-infrared camera. The unit is capable of partially illuminating full size modules at night and capturing the photoluminescence response. In the maiden flight, we achieved a throughput of 13.6 PV modules per minute, and we estimate that a throughput of 300 PV modules per minute is feasible. We show that the setup can be used to detect and identify cracks and potential-induced-degradation with high levels of confidence. We verify these findings by cross correlation and comparing captured photoluminescence images to electroluminescence images taken indoors.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000984543600001
%R 10.1002/pssr.202300059
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1007333