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.
