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Utility-scale grid-tied PV inverter reliability workshop summary report

Atcitty, Stanley A.; Granata, Jennifer E.; Quintana, Michael A.

A key to the long-term success of the photovoltaic (PV) industry is confidence in the reliability of PV systems. Inverters are the most commonly noted cause of PV system incidents triggered in the field. While not all of these incidents are reliability-related or even necessarily failures, they still result in a loss of generated power. With support from the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Program, Sandia National Laboratories organized a Utility-Scale Grid-Tied Inverter Reliability Workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 27-28, 2011. The workshop addressed the reliability of large (100-kilowatt+) grid-tied inverters and the implications when such inverters fail, evaluated inverter codes and standards, and provided discussion about opportunities to enhance inverter reliability. This report summarizes discussions and presentations from the workshop and identifies opportunities for future efforts.