Aerial infrared thermography (aIRT) is an efficient method to detect faults in PV installations. This work investigates the aIRT of a CIGS thin-film PV plant. The inspection of the 1 MWp plant of 1.4 hectares at 20 m altitude took about 12 minutes, plus 30 minutes for analysing the video data. Such an inspection allows the detection of most of the faults in a thin-film PV plant.

SPF Institute for Solar Technology