Autonomous Intelligent Monitoring of Photovoltaic Systems: An In-Depth Multidisciplinary Review

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive multidisciplinary review of autonomous monitoring and analysis of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants using enabling technologies, namely artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), internet of things (IoT), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and big data analytics (BDA), aiming to automate the entire condition monitoring procedures of PV systems. Autonomous monitoring and analysis is a novel concept for integrating various techniques, devices, systems, and platforms to further enhance the accuracy of PV monitoring, thereby improving the performance, reliability, and service life of PV systems. This review article covers current trends, recent research paths and developments, and future perspectives of autonomous monitoring and analysis for PV power plants. Additionally, this study identifies the main barriers and research routes for the autonomous and smart condition monitoring of PV systems, to address the current and future challenges of enabling the PV terawatt (TW) transition. The holistic review of the literature shows that the field of autonomous monitoring and analysis of PV plants is rapidly growing and is capable to significantly improve the efficiency and reliability of PV systems. It can also have significant benefits for PV plant operators and maintenance staff, such as reducing the downtime and the need for human operators in maintenance tasks, as well as increasing the generated energy.