Thermal Image Analysis and Segmentation to Study Temperature Effects of Cement and Bird Deposition on Surface of Solar Panels

Abstract

To obtain solar energy from solar photo-voltaic panels is not a new task now a days. Solar panels are designed to give their maximum possible output when exposed to the solar radiations. The operating conditions of solar panels affected by the atmospheric conditions like dust, dirt, solar INSOLATION, temperature etc. Here the effect of cement and bird deposits on the surface of solar panels is considered. Temperature rise due to cement and bird deposits develop hot-spots and affects the electrical power output of the solar panel. The cement and bird deposits can be seen by visually on solar panel surface but their effect can not be visualized by naked eye. The infrared THERMOGRAPHY helps to analyze these effects by using thermal imaging camera. This paper focus to study the temperature effects of cement and bird deposition on solar panel surface by capturing thermal images along with analyzing the thermal images using MATLAB digital image processing for better understanding. Image segmentation for cement and bird deposits is performed using watershed transform to achieve the desired region of interest from thermal images.