Plenary Lecture

Inspection, Evaluation and Monitoring of Photovoltaic Systems: From Small Samples to Big Data

Professor Ansgar Steland
RWTH Aachen University
Germany
Email: steland@stochastik.rwth-aachen.de

Abstract: In this talk I give an overview of recent approaches to inspect, evaluate and monitor photovoltaic systems based on field data, mainly as developed at the Photovoltaic Statistical Laboratory at RWTH Aachen University. The inspection problem addresses the issue to determine a (minimal) sample size, in order to assess whether or not a lot of solar panels satisfies the nominal specification with respect to the power output. Recent research has focussed on inspection plans at two time points, i.e. allowing for a later inspection. Since laboratory measurements are expensive, the question arises how to analyze field data taken a site. We discuss, firstly, how one may design such studies taking into account heterogeneity due to, e.g., different manufacturers or different types of pre-damages. Secondly, we propose a framework how to analyze statistically such data. Electroluminescence (EL) imaging has become a standard tool to evaluate the quality of solar panels leading to big data samples when characterizing large PV systems by field imaging. We discuss highly efficient automatic procedures for distortion correction, standardization and testing for the presence of suspicious areas. This talk is based on own work and joint work with co-authors.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Ansgar Steland received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of Go?ttingen, Germany, in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He held positions as an assistant at the Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, as a consultant in industry, as a postdoc at the European University Viadrina of Frankfurt/Oder, Germany, and as a lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematics at the Ruhr-University Bochum, where he also led the statistical consulting services. Since 2006, he has been a Professor at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, where he holds the Chair of Stochastics at the Institute of Statistics. Dr. Steland has been member of several societies, headed the Department of Mathematics from 2010 to 2012, acts as the chair of the Society for Reliability, Quality and Safety, and also chairs the Working Group of Change-Point Analysis of the German Statistical Society. His current research interests are in nonparametric regression, signal and change-point detection, sequential analysis and quality control, applications to photovoltaics, empirical stochastic processes, econometrics, and time series analysis.