A Chinese research team has developed a scene-aware panel surface temperature (PST) retrieval model for utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) plants using MODIS thermal infrared satellite data. The method corrects for mixed-pixel effects, array geometry, and PV-specific directional emissivity to enable accurate panel-scale temperature estimation from space.
A Chinese research team has developed a novel panel surface temperature (PST) retrieval model designed specifically for utility-scale photovoltaic power plants.
The proposed approach leverages moderate-resolution thermal infrared (TIR) satellite imagery and is engineered to address several long-standing challenges that have limited accurate temperature estimation in large PV installations.
“The novelty of this research is that it enables satellites to estimate the surface temperature of photovoltaic panels – something that has been very difficult because solar farms are not uniform surfaces, but complex mixed scenes made up of panels, gap ground, and surrounding ground,” corresponding author Kun Yang told pv magazine.
“Our method goes beyond conventional land surface temperature retrievals by accounting for the three-dimensional structure of PV arrays, changes in the apparent panel area with viewing angle, and the unusually low, directional emissivity of PV panels,” the academic said. “In doing so, it provides a new scene-aware way to retrieve panel-scale thermal information from satellite observations over utility-scale solar farms.”
