Everything You Need to Know About Large-Scale Solar Maintenance
Welcome to the future of energy, where the sun does the heavy lifting. Solar power isn’t just the next big thing—it’s the thing. We’ve gathered the sharpest minds in the industry to bring you a no-nonsense, all-insight FAQ guide that will turn you from curious to confident. Wondering about efficiency? How and when to do Maintenance? How to maximise the sun’s limitless power? How to see a fault even before it becomes a fault? Or what about knowing the top #5 industry wide problem areas? Well this is where the smart answers live.
Your Solar Questions, Answered
Solar power is far more than just construction and installation—it’s about ensuring long-term performance and maximising output. We like to remind our clients, that your asset is suppose to perform for around 30 years…!
Our comprehensive FAQ page addresses all your burning questions about maintaining large-scale solar systems. From routine inspections to advanced drone technology, we’ve got the answers you need to keep your solar farm shining, day in and day out.
Here are some tips to proactive maintenance areas also. Things we have noticed in the large scale solar industry since our beginnings back in 2017
Preventive maintenance involves routine inspections, cleaning, and system adjustments to prevent component failure and ensure optimal performance.
The TOP#6 Key Areas that will cost you money are:
- Combiner Boxes
- Vegetation Control
- RMU and HV Equipment
- PV Array Cabling and Connections
- DC Cabling
- Inverters
Note: If you’re not performing your inspections and looking for the things that Omnisolar knows to look for … Well your site could be at risk.
It is recommended to perform preventive maintenance at least once or twice a year, depending on the specifications from the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)..
However this is the bare minimum, and depending on where your asset is located, omnisolar would suggest changing that frequency to 4 times per year. We have even seen in some places, that a monthly inspection is required to prevent major plant failure – which eventually did occur, as an annual inspection was all that was being done.
We will show you what areas to check. Sometimes doing the bare minimum will cost you money in the long run as the O&M provider.
Key components include solar panels, inverters, dc wiring, mounting structures, and monitoring systems to ensure they’re free of damage or wear.
The key is NOT what you are inspecting, it is HOW you are inspecting it.
Many O&M providers simply do the bare minimum (or worse!) when it comes to Operation and Maintenance Inspections.. At Omnisolar we have noticed certain areas that need to be inspected as an additonal check, to ensure common failures are not about to cause a catastrophic failure.
- Combiner Boxes have numerous hidden areas that should be checked
- PV Wiring has known legacy issues from construction
- DC Cabling underground should be check at certain locations
- Inverters have areas that need to be checked to avoid massive failures
- RMU and HV Equipment can cost a lot of money and need to be tested at certain intervals
It is not!
I know that is a weird thing to say, but here at Omnisolar we want you to think whether it is truly required… And beyond that, what are the impacts of your current cleaning solution.
This is what we have seen:
- The contractor is simply a cleaner (with little or NO electrcial knowledge)
- That cleaner doesnt know what non system normal looks like, so they could be about to move into a faulted panel area
- Far too maney panel strikes due to the cleaner simply focussing on the cleaning, and not the ‘electrical generator’ that surrounds them !!
- Panels being damaged due to a tractor bouncing its way along the array tables (with a huge boom arm banging its way along the row)
- You have a duty of care as the OWNER to ensure people are appropriately trained to understand large scale solar before they simply run a tractor along to clean it.
Omnisolar offers multiple O&M training packages, so that all persons onsite are electrically aware of their surroudnings – including cleaners.
Have You Thought About:
- Does your site require a full, or spot clean?
- What is your weather station data teling you?
- Is your cleaning equipment causing ‘micro cracking’
- Has the method been approved by your panel manufacturer (are you voiding warranty)
- Does your water need tempering? is it cold shocking your panels
Note: If you’re not performing your inspections and looking for the things that Omnisolar knows to look for … Well your site could be at risk.
Harsh weather, such as dust storms or heavy rainfall, may require more frequent checks and cleaning to prevent long-term damage to the system.
Corrective maintenance involves repairing or replacing faulty components that have failed or are underperforming to restore system functionality.
Common issues include inverter failure, wiring faults, panel degradation, and mounting structure damage due to environmental exposure.
Due you know how to:
- Enter a faulted area safely to perform isolations?
- Check system normal before and after
- Ensure you don’t fall into the top 3 failures of rectification works
- Avoid causing a secondary failure because you forget to check a few additional inverter items (stop guessing with inverters – Omnisolar is the expert)
NOTE: Should you, or your team even be entering a ‘faulted area’..? What if it is a multi zone fault and you focus on entering, while neglecting to see two simaltaneous faults..?
Faulty inverters are either repaired on-site or replaced if the issue cannot be resolved. Regular monitoring helps detect inverter issues early.
Omnisolar offer offsite and onsite monitoring solutions.
SMA Australia Preferred Service Partner: As a preferred service partner to SMA Australia, we are accredited to replace every part in the SMA inverters. We offer all solutions in this area.
Corrective maintenance aims to minimize downtime and quickly restore full energy production, avoiding long-term losses in system efficiency.
When corrective maintenance is not done correctly, it can COST !! We have seen all sorts of maintenace techniques being performed onsite..
Here are the top 5 DONT’s in Large Scale Solar:
- The use of ‘Dury Rigging’ when the right equipment is not available
- Bypass 2-man switching because no one else is around
- Pulling PV plugs apart ‘UNDER LOAD’ because it is trained onsite
- Use Guess work when an inverter is a fault mode ($250,000+ kit)
- Allowing things to run, as the burn doesnt look that bad
Nearly a $10,000,000+ lesson: We saved a company from a site wide failure and extremely bad media coverage, by informing the current providers onsite to stop short term fixing a systemic issue onsite. They were using guess work becasue they didnt know what we knew about the equipment in question
Monitoring allows operators to track performance metrics in real-time, detect system inefficiencies, and address issues before they escalate.
Omnisolar offers offsite monitoring support solutions. We can also be on the phone to clear up any queries you have about an onsite issue
Data includes energy output, temperature, panel efficiency, inverter performance, and system downtime. Weather data is also tracked to analyze system performance under various conditions.
Have You Thought About:
- Check data for future issues that are just around the corner
- Looking into trends and spotting future issues
- Monitoring temperatures in certain cabinets to spot irregularities
- What innovative solutions are available
- Using additional equipment to support your current maintenance
Remote monitoring allows for real-time data collection and analysis without needing on-site personnel, increasing efficiency and reducing maintenance costs.
Omnisolar offers remote monitoring solutions. We can do all your monitoring and or offer you assistance simply when you need it.
Predictive maintenance uses historical data and AI to predict potential system failures, allowing teams to address issues before they result in downtime.
At Omnisolar, we have seen what occurs at the 3-year, 5-year and 7-year marks in Operation and Maintenance onsite. We already know some of the key areas you will be trouble shooting at these times.
Allow us to do a full site predictive analysis for you. We will highlight your top #10 mostly costly areas.
Continuous monitoring ensures that potential issues are addressed promptly, reducing wear on components and extending the life of the solar farm.