TY  - JOUR
AU  - Doll, Bernd
AU  - Wittmann, Ernst
AU  - Lüer, Larry
AU  - Hepp, Johannes
AU  - Buerhop-Lutz, Claudia
AU  - Hauch, Jens
AU  - Brabec, Christoph
AU  - Peters, Ian Marius
TI  - Aerial photoluminescence imaging of photovoltaic modules
JO  - Physica status solidi / Rapid research letters
VL  - 17
IS  - 12
SN  - 1862-6254
CY  - Weinheim
PB  - Wiley-VCH
M1  - FZJ-2023-02019
SP  - 202300059
PY  - 2023
AB  - 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.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000984543600001
DO  - DOI:10.1002/pssr.202300059
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1007333
ER  -