Artificial Intelligence-based diagnostic system for Solar PV Plants

Project Information

DeepSolar

Grant agreement ID: 790316

DOI

10.3030/790316

Project closed

EC signature date 21 November 2017

Start date 1 December 2017

End date 31 March 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

RAYCATCH LTD
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DeepSolar (Artificial Intelligence-based diagnostic system for Solar PV Plants)

Reporting period: 2017-12-01 to 2018-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Current PV solar monitoring systems, meant for human manual screen observation of data or static thresholds, don’t identify the deviation cause nor enable margin optimization. DeepSolar is a comprehensive automated solar diagnostics tool which requires no hardware installation and provides predictive optimization, quantifiable insights and pinpointed action items. By bringing such a disruptive technology to the market owners and managers of PV solar plants will benefit. We apply Artificial Intelligence for fully-automated, human-independent analysis and diagnostic tools governing the operation of all PV plant components. Our main objectives to meet requirements are: determine actions for technical development, assess the market of PV monitoring systems, identify any innovation legally protected that may risk our project, explore the possibility of copyright and design a strong commercial strategy and business plan to reach sales objectives.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

A FTO analysis has been performed guaranteeing that DeepSolar can be commercialised and in order to protect it we will pursue copyright. Regarding the technical progress, we have identified our next moves in order to implement all necessary upgrades to our technology. We analysed the new targeted markets to evaluate their volume, end users and the best penetration strategy. We performed a risk assessment to make sure that the most relevant risks are identified and a contingency plan set. We already have filed owners testing and validating DeepSolar while several potential customers have expressed their interest. We also value trade fairs and demonstration activities as a business opportunity to attract our customers and we will take advantage of them to establish commercial agreements.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

DeepSolar tackles the O&M challenges - data collection, normalization and analysis- thanks to its in-depth automated and continuous diagnostics system that provides full understanding and data-driven maintenance tasks. The accurate diagnosis offered by DeepSolar increases the overall efficiency of the PV field by increasing yields to 2.5-6% more energy, representing a reduction of GHG emissions by up to 3%. It also reduces operational costs by 12-20% since the maintenance team is directed to the relevant tasks. With DeepSolar Raycatch will become a technological reference with a unique solution that will disrupt into EU and international PV management markets and reach €32 million revenues with 75 direct employees by 2023.

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