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Report on the analysis of field data relating to the reliability of solar hot water systems

Menicucci, David F.

Utilities are overseeing the installations of thousand of solar hot water (SHW) systems. Utility planners have begun to ask for quantitative measures of the expected lifetimes of these systems so that they can properly forecast their loads. This report, which augments a 2009 reliability analysis effort by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), addresses this need. Additional reliability data have been collected, added to the existing database, and analyzed. The results are presented. Additionally, formal reliability theory is described, including the bathtub curve, which is the most common model to characterize the lifetime reliability character of systems, and for predicting failures in the field. Reliability theory is used to assess the SNL reliability database. This assessment shows that the database is heavily weighted with data that describe the reliability of SHW systems early in their lives, during the warranty period. But it contains few measured data to describe the ends of SHW systems lives. End-of-life data are the most critical ones to define sufficiently the reliability of SHW systems in order to answer the questions that the utilities pose. Several ideas are presented for collecting the required data, including photometric analysis of aerial photographs of installed collectors, statistical and neural network analysis of energy bills from solar homes, and the development of simple algorithms to allow conventional SHW controllers to announce system failures and record the details of the event, similar to how aircraft black box recorders perform. Some information is also presented about public expectations for the longevity of a SHW system, information that is useful in developing reliability goals.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
DOIOSTI

Utility-scale grid-tied PV inverter reliability workshop summary report

Atcitty, Stanley; Granata, Jennifer E.; Quintana, Michael A.

A key to the long-term success of the photovoltaic (PV) industry is confidence in the reliability of PV systems. Inverters are the most commonly noted cause of PV system incidents triggered in the field. While not all of these incidents are reliability-related or even necessarily failures, they still result in a loss of generated power. With support from the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Program, Sandia National Laboratories organized a Utility-Scale Grid-Tied Inverter Reliability Workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 27-28, 2011. The workshop addressed the reliability of large (100-kilowatt+) grid-tied inverters and the implications when such inverters fail, evaluated inverter codes and standards, and provided discussion about opportunities to enhance inverter reliability. This report summarizes discussions and presentations from the workshop and identifies opportunities for future efforts.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
DOIOSTI
Results 68001–68200 of 99,299
Results 68001–68200 of 99,299