A Comprehensive Review of Catastrophic Faults in PV Arrays: Types, Detection, and Mitigation Techniques

Three major catastrophic failures in photovoltaic (PV) arrays are ground faults, line-to-line faults, and arc faults. Although there have not been many such failures, recent fire events on April 5, 2009, in Bakersfield, CA, USA, and on April 16, 2011, in Mount Holly, NC, USA, suggest the need for improvements in present fault detection and mitigation techniques, as well as amendments to existing codes and standards to avoid such accidents. This...