Thermography is used to find areas of excess heat (caused by increased resistance) so that problems can be corrected before a component fails, causing damage to the component, creating safety hazards and productivity loss. To this sense what is detectable with a thermography inspection in general can be:
Due to the fact that increased heating is a sign of failure and most things tend to get hot before they fail, thermography is the best diagnostic tool available in the early stages. This type of inspection supports the preventive maintenance for fire protection, the availability of the system for power production, and the inspection of the quality of the PV modules. Inevitably, it's hard to beat the NON-CONTACT method of thermography inspection. Therefore, the benefits of an IR inspection can be to:
With the rapid development of the solar industry, the respective pressure to execute projects under strict timelines with different installation practices, training levels of workforce and many times inadequate maintenance and testing it becomes obvious that thermography inspection should be part of the quality acceptance procedures of any new PV installation and for ongoing maintenance regimes of established PV projects.