Failure mode and effect analysis for photovoltaic systems

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is an inductive and conservative system reliability analysis approach, here applied to photovoltaic system. A system is a complex combination of components and sub-components, where technical and disciplinary interfaces apply in their mutual interactions. FMEA processes the individual analysis of each system׳s sub-component with the task to identify the various failure modes affecting each part, along with causes and consequences for the part itself and the entire system. In the proposed analysis the system׳s component and sub-components have been identified from the design of the Northeast Solar Energy Research Center (NSERC) photovoltaic research array located at Brookhaven National Laboratory׳s (BNL). The complete FMEA analysis is presented, along with the applied ranking scales and final results. The approach is discussed in its benefits and limitations, the latter mainly identified in the limited amount of open source information concerning failure probabilities for the photovoltaic system parts.