Is Solar PV Module Serial Number Scanning an Increasingly Important Topic for your Solar Sites?
Are you dealing with warranty claims or planning to revamp your solar site? Are you commissioning a solar PV site and wondering how you will track thousands of components? Serial number scanning will be a crucial task for you to undertake. This article helps to shed light on why serial number scanning is important and how to overcome the challenges of performing this task in large volumes for solar PV plants. Check out the video below.
Why is Solar PV Module Serial Number Scanning important?
We admit, scanning PV module serial numbers is a daunting task. You might easily ask the question if going through the hassle of scanning thousands of serial numbers is worth the time and effort. From our perspective the answer is clearly: yes. While it might require a small investment at the beginning, the payoff of having a precise and correct module component registry will be manyfold during the lifetime of the solar asset.
We see mainly two moments in time when module serial number scanning is performed by our customers. The first and ideal scenario is at commissioning. It is the first vital step towards creating your asset registry to monitor component conditions. Recording the serial numbers makes it possible to connect information from factory tests as well as any other module testing thereby ensuring that issues can be identified and actioned early.
The second scenario is when scenario one did not occur – alas the case with almost all aging assets: you are fighting through a warranty claim, need to list serial numbers of all affected modules and prove their unsatisfactory condition. At this moment serial number scanning is also possible, however more difficult than in scenario one. Module serial numbers might not be visible anymore, the activity has to be organized and financed disrupting the regular work around your asset, and time is often of the essence before warranty claims expire.
If the warranty claim is successful you will then need to replace the specific modules and come up with a revamping strategy. For which again, you will need to know precisely which modules to exchange and how to rearrange the site. It’s really crucial to have a record of each module’s performance to plan revamping activities.
In the ‘Above Onsite’ video, we explain the benefits of recording solar PV module serial numbers at construction accurately.
When to scan Solar PV Module Serial Numbers?
With ageing assets, scenario two is happening more frequently. Even though serial number scanning is still manual and time-consuming, it is worth the effort. In our recent cooperation with RES, we demonstrated how the software-based structuring of scanned serial number data improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the activity. Download the case study here.
Scenario one, solar PV module serial number scanning at commissioning, is an increasingly common practice during commissioning. It is a vital first step to successfully building an accurate asset register and monitoring component conditions. Monitoring the conditions of solar site components as part of a quality assurance regime is essential and will enable you to identify issues early, easily claim modules and ensure longevity.
Challenges of Solar PV Module Serial Number scanning in large volumes
With the average site containing tens of thousands of module components, documenting, tracking, and managing the volume can be challenging. And – to answer this question right at the beginning – while drone-based scanning might seem attractive, our experience has shown that it cannot be reliably performed and is still best done manually.
Performing a manual task at such a large scale comes with challenges. From technical errors in the scanning process to human errors due to the repetitiveness of the task, to post-processing issues when cleaning the data.
Solutions for Solar PV Module Serial Numbers Scanning at Scale
Thankfully, sensible solutions exist to reduce the challenges and increase efficiency and effectiveness. Above’s EyeSite SolarScan is one of them. In our upcoming blog post, we’ll guide you through the fundamental aspects of scanning PV module serial numbers in bulk.
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