System and method for photovoltaic plant power curve measurement and health monitoring

摘要

A photovoltaic (PV) plant (10) power curve measurement system determines normalized irradiation data in response to algorithmic software based on measured or calculated irradiance at one or more desired PV plant (10) locations. The measurement system also measures PV plant (10) electrical power and generates an estimated power curve map of corresponding photovoltaic plant (10) electrical power as a function of the normalized irradiation data and the measured PV plant (10) electrical power, such that corresponding power curve data can be compared to historical, theoretical or simulated power curve data based on normalized irradiation data for the photovoltaic plant (10) to detect degradation of the photovoltaic plant (10) in a desired time frame.