The Solar Photovoltaic (PV) market is projected to grow at a 30 +% CAGR over the next five years – from 53.5 million finished panels and modules in 2008 to over 198 million panels by 2013. This growth is driven by a new trend towards desert-based large utility-scale solar power projects, defined as greater than one MegaWatt at a single site and grid tie point. Compared to an average home rooftop system with only 10-20 panels, a 50 Megawatt (MVA) Solar Power Park (like the one now being planned in the West Texas “Big Bend”) would require over 500,000 units of 120 Watt thin film PV panels to provide a 60 MW DC total design capacity. Although very reliable, thin film PV has predictable failure rates, and within such a large array, appreciable numbers of failures and maintenance needs. Because PV panels today are dumb-two terminal devices, the problem comes down to excessive time and labor cost to find, diagnose and replace the occasional single failed panel – out of 500,000. This needle-in-a-haystack scenario becomes an impossibility without monitoring within the array on a panel by panel basis.
With panel and module life being extended from 25 year to 40 years and beyond, the long term value and revenue from the power produced by a solar panel is considerable. This considerable revenue now mandates in-panel electronics that provide individual panel by panel monitoring and total management of large arrays.
In a nutshell, PV in-panel monitoring will become a significant trend as dumb-panels turn into smart-panels – with on-board self-powered electronic communications living inside the junction box.

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