In this study, a novel optoelectronic system for fault detection in photovoltaic (PV) cells has been developed. Three sensors, each with a photodiode, were manufactured and mathematical models developed to interpret the fault results from the sensors. The photodiodes sweep across the PV panel to identify areas of high light intensity. The goal is to produce diagnostic images of PV panels that are comparable to standard electroluminescence (EL) imaging. Each sensor was tested under two conditions: darkness and sunlight exposure. For all the sensors, the results obtained in darkness closely match the EL images. However, PV panel exposure to sunlight produces mixed results due to differences in light intensity across the PV cells. To address this issue, two enhancement techniques were developed. First, a collector was used to improve sunlight directionality, with an improved result shown in Sensor 3. Second, a voltage step was added to the PV panel, showing an improved result in all three sensors. Among the tested combinations, the combination of Sensor 3 with an alternative collector and a step-type voltage source produced the best performance. These results clearly indicate that the sensor-based approach can effectively diagnose the PV panel health condition.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-20849-2.
Keywords: Electroluminescence; Photodiode; Photovoltaic; Sensor; Sunlight and darkness.