Moreover, tracker-mounted sites appeared to perform better over time than fixed-tilt sites, with 54% in good or better condition, compared to 44% of fixed-tilt sites.
Broadly speaking, 51% of the examined US solar sites were in excellent or good operational condition. However, solar PV plants that were ten years or older showed different stages of deterioration, with around 25% of the older fleet still in excellent or good operational condition. Only 11% of these older solar PV plants were in the highest condition, according to the results.
“This data can tell owners and operations and maintenance firms specifically where to troubleshoot while saving them money on inspection costs. More importantly, it helps focus the limited labour resources on the power plants that actually need attention,” said Mark Culpepper, general manager of global solar solutions at Zeitview.
Moving forward, Zeitview will continue inspecting solar PV plants in the US and aims to capture over 200GW of aerial imagery and data across the global renewable energy sector this year.
