Cost-Benefit Optimization: Revitalization of aging PV power plants, achieves a 2.72% increase in power generation capacity

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay simulated a utility scale photovoltaic power plant in Python, analyzed the technical and economic feasibility of improving the photovoltaic power plant by reconfiguring degraded modules, and ultimately developed six different strategies to reconfigure solar modules in degraded photovoltaic assets.Initially, two degradation modes were studied.

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Firstly, there is a decrease in shunt resistance (Rsh), which is typically caused by potential induced degradation (PID) in humid and hot climates. The second type is an increase in series resistance (Rs), usually caused by corrosion, interconnect degradation, or welding issues. In both cases, researchers attempted to reconfigure the system by grouping similar modules into new strings. However, this only led to an improvement in the first situation (2.72%), while the performance deteriorated in the second situation (-0.64%).

Experimental Team's Test Facility

After this experiment, the team only focused on situations where the current was unevenly reduced, such as those involving Rsh degradation in PID, as the potential for reconfiguration was discovered in these cases. Six different strategies were outlined for the proposed solution. From an economic perspective, the strategy that requires different panel replacement rates is more feasible when the module cost is lower.

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Assuming that the labor cost in India is 0.74 US dollars per hour, while in the United States it is 7.25 US dollars per hour and 8 working hours per day, the labor cost exchanged for each module in India is 0.198 US dollars per module, while in the United States it is 1.93 US dollars per module. Therefore, 100 people can reconfigure the entire 28.35 MW factory within approximately one month.