Monitoring and Evaluating Performance and Aging of Solar Photovoltaic Generation Systems and Power Inverters

A system for monitoring a photovoltaic system having at least one array of photovoltaic panels and at least one inverter system configured to convert output from the array of photovoltaic panels from DC to AC, the system comprising:

• sensors configured to obtain data from the photovoltaic system, wherein the data obtained from the photovoltaic system comprises i) ambient conditions at the array of photovoltaic panels, ii) photovoltaic panel current and voltage outputs from the array of photovoltaic panels, iii) current and voltage inputs to the inverter system, and iv) current and voltage outputs from the inverter system;
• and
• a processor device coupled to a memory, wherein the processor device is operative to:
• compute an efficiency of the array of photovoltaic panels nPV using the sensor data;
• compute an efficiency of the inverter system nINV using the sensor data;
• compute an aging parameter for the array of photovoltaic panels using the efficiency of the array of photovoltaic panels nPV;
• compute an aging parameter for the inverter system using the efficiency of the inverter system nINV;
• determine whether the aging parameter for the array of photovoltaic panels or the aging parameter for the inverter system exceeds a predetermined threshold level;
• and
• take action if either the aging parameter for the array of photovoltaic panels or the aging parameter for the inverter system exceeds the predetermined threshold level.