Survey of maintenance management for photovoltaic power systems

The sustainability of the global energy production systems involves new renewable energies and the improvement of the existing ones. Photovoltaic industry is growing thanks to the development of new technologies that increase the performance of photovoltaic systems. These systems are commonly subject to harsh environmental conditions that decrease their energy production and efficiency. In addition, current photovoltaic technologies are more sophisticated, and the size of photovoltaics solar plants is growing. Under this framework, research on failures and degradation mechanisms, together with the improvement of maintenance management, becomes essential to increase the performance, efficiency, reliability, availability, safety, and profitability of these systems. To assess maintenance needs, this paper presents a double contribution: an exhaustive literature review and updated survey on maintenance of photovoltaic plants, and a novel analysis of the current state and a discussion of the future trends and challenges in this field. An analysis of the main faults and degradation mechanisms is done, including the causes, effects, and the main techniques to detect, prevent and mitigate them. •Exhaustive literature review and updated survey on maintenance of photovoltaic (PV) plants.•Novel analysis of the current state and a discussion of the future trends and challenges in PV.•Analysis of the main faults and degradation mechanisms.•Study the causes, effects, and the main techniques to detect, prevent and mitigate PV faults.•Improvement of maintenance management systems in PV plants.