• DocumentCode
    2779495
  • Title

    Field reliability analysis methods for photovoltaic inverters

  • Author

    Fife, John M. ; Scharf, Mesa ; Hummel, Steven G. ; Morris, Randy W.

  • Author_Institution
    PV Powered, Inc., Bend, OR, USA
  • fYear
    2010
  • fDate
    20-25 June 2010
  • Abstract
    Given the increasing importance of solar power and the efforts to optimize large power plants, the effect of subsystems on levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is being examined in increasing detail. For the photovoltaic (PV) inverter, which is one of the most complicated elements in a PV system, reliability has been an important issue. There are many ways to measure and report reliability of electrical equipment. This paper reviews some of these metrics and discusses their application to PV inverters. An example calculation of inverter downtime and availability is also presented for a sample population of 30kW commercial-class inverters.
  • Keywords
    invertors; photovoltaic power systems; power system reliability; solar power; LCOE; PV system; electrical equipment; field reliability analysis method; inverter downtime; levelized cost of energy; photovoltaic inverter; power plant; solar power;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE
  • Conference_Location
    Honolulu, HI
  • ISSN
    0160-8371
  • Print_ISBN
    978-1-4244-5890-5
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/PVSC.2010.5616790
  • Filename
    5616790