Review on methods of fault diagnosis in photovoltaic system applications

Recently, detection and identification of faults in photovoltaic (PV) system applications have been attracting researchers worldwide. Some of them have investigated the causes of potential faults, have worked on how to monitor and identify the faults through fault diagnosis, and have elaborated on how to develop problem-solving methods for the early detection of faults in PV system operations. This paper attempts to provide information comprehensively from the previous research. It summarizes types of faults, methods used in early fault identification and monitoring, and PV fault prevention and protection systems. The paper also investigates future trends in PV system fault diagnosis which include real-time implementation. The paper is expected to bring new perspective about the literature associate with fault studies in PV systems. This survey will be beneficial for the future discussion on how to provide comprehensive solutions for PV system fault problems. It will help avoid research repetition on similar topics and focus on the improvement and performance development of PV fault diagnosis methods. © 2019 School of Science, IHU. All rights reserved.