Four-year performance assessment of the 342 kW PV system at Georgia Tech

The Georgia Tech Aquatic Center photovoltaic (PV) array, one of the world's largest roof-mounted PV arrays, has been in operation since June 1996. This paper describes the system performance during the first four years of operation. The performance is compared to the simulation results, and the modeling and forecasting accuracy improved as a result. The system failure mechanisms are identified and reliability indices, such as mean time between failures, are calculated. The overall system performance is good, and experience in operation and maintenance useful in both modeling and forecasting of the performance of PV systems of similar size.