Solar inspection report finds field-made solar connectors, wire management caused most safety issues

HelioVolta

HelioVolta, a software developer and provider of independent technical consulting and inspection services for solar projects, has released the first SolarGrade PV health report. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the safety and reliability of distributed generation (DG) solar PV systems using on-the-ground data from operational projects in the US and Puerto Rico.

“Solar fieldwork on the sun generates vital safety and reliability data that cannot be obtained from any other source, other than drones or aircraft, remote monitoring tools, or even inverter error logs,” commented the HelioVolta and SolarGrade co-founder. James Nagel. . “Our report shows that standardized, high-quality visual and thermal inspections are necessary to maximize PV system uptime and prevent safety incidents such as fires and thermal events.”

The SolarGrade PV Health Report analyzes over 60,000 PV system health data points from hundreds of independent project assessments conducted with SolarGrade, HelioVolta’s cloud-based field operations management platform for renewable energy assets. SolarGrade software enables extensive analysis of field observations, standardizing QA/QC and O&M of PV systems and automating reporting.

Key findings from the first SolarGrade PV health report include:

• 62% of inspections found safety issues such as overheating components or improperly installed equipment.
• 59% of all problems are related to wiring management and solar field connectors.
• Systems commissioned in 2020 experienced more problems than systems commissioned in any other year.

“The SolarGrade PV Health Report demonstrates that QAQC inspection of PV assets ensures safe, reliable operations that meet performance expectations. We are excited to have our partners at HelioVolta share their unique insights from the industry to inform the market,” said Anna Waters, Vice President of Commercial Operations at Omnidian.

HelioVolta

The SolarGrade PV Health Report uses data from hundreds of PV system inspections conducted between 2021 and 2023. 75% of verified projects are installed on commercial rooftops and system sizes range from 100 kW to 350 MW.

“Solar power is fundamentally safe and reliable, but only when properly installed and maintained,” commented David Penalva, co-founder of HelioVolta and SolarGrade. “Our new report highlights the vital role field workers play in the renewable energy transition. they are the safeguards of PV systems, and they need modern software tools like SolarGrade software to do their best work.”

New from HelioVolta and SolarGrade