Detecting the presence of pigeons on PV modules in a pico-solar system

Abstract

Shading caused by the presence of pigeons can negatively affect the output power of a PV module in a pico-solar system. This is due to the fact that the body of the pigeon may interrupt the direct beam radiation received by a cell, or number of cells, resulting in output power loss and internal power dissipation within the PV module, as the shaded cells become reverse biased. Detecting the presence of pigeons and then deploying some type of intervention to scare the pigeons away may assist in reducing the shading time, thereby enabling the availability of maximum output power and reduced hot spots. The purpose of this paper is to present the design and results of a LabVIEW software system that was used to detect the presence of pigeons on PV modules in a pico-solar system. The developed system monitors the output voltage and current of multiple identical PV systems, and if a significant drop in current is detected in one system, while the others remain constant, then the system registers an event and logs the amount of time in 10- second intervals. For each sample of this event, the system records an image of the PV modules using a high definition webcam. Correlating the images to the actual events reveals an 86.4% accuracy, thereby indicating that the developed system is indeed detecting the presence of pigeons on the PV modules. It is further recommended to now integrate into this system some type of intervention which may be used to scare the pigeons away.