journal article·2025-12-18Open access

Artificial Vision in Renewable Photovoltaic Systems: A Review and Vision of Specific Applications and Technologies

Tito G. Amaral, Armando Cordeiro, Vitor Fernão Pires

Applied Sciences· Volume 15· Issue 24

Abstract

Renewable energy resources have become extremely important in the current context of air pollution and the production of significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. One of the most important renewable energy sources that has shown the highest growth in recent years is photovoltaic (PV) systems. Due to their significance, this research presents a review of the applications in which artificial computer vision can be used in photovoltaic systems. From the results presented in this review, it will be evident that artificial vision can be applied for several different purposes. The advantages of using this technique will also be highlighted. Additionally, a systematic literature review is presented on the research associated with this topic. Through this review, it will be evident that many advanced algorithms related to image acquisition equipment have been proposed to ensure high reliability and fast results. This review does not merely focus on a specific topic or algorithms associated with image processing applied to photovoltaic systems. Rather, this work presents a broad and comprehensive review detailing all viable applications and associated computer vision technologies that can be deployed within these systems. Besides that, the review will clearly specify which work one is based on public datasets. To allow future reproducibility or research, the links to all public datasets utilized in the works based on them are included.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Photovoltaic System Optimization Techniques · Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability · Solar Radiation and Photovoltaics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Electrical Engineering (DEE), Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Setúbal (ESTSetúbal), Polytechnic University of Setúbal, Campus do IPS, Estefanilha, 2914-508 Setúbal, Portugal

Low Carbon Energy Conversion (LCEC), Department of Electrical, Energy and Automation Engineering (DEEEA), Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL), Polytechnic University of Lisbon, Estrada de Benfica, 529, 1500-085 Lisboa, Portugal

Investigation and Development Center, Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering: Research and Development in Lisbon (INESC-ID), Rua Alves Redol, 9, 1000-029 Lisboa, Portugal

References (100+)

Show source-provided references
1. Rashid, M.H. (2016). Electric Renewable Energy Systems, Academic Press.
2. (2025, September 10). Communication from the Commission to the European Council and the European Parliament an Energy Policy for Europe. Commission of the European Communities, Brussels. Available online: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52007DC0001&from=en.
3. (2021, May 24). IRENA—International Renewable Energy Agency. Available online: https://www.irena.org/Energy-Transition/Technology/Solar-energy.
4. Inspection and condition monitoring of large-scale photovoltaic power plants: A review of imaging technologies10.1016/j.rser.2022.112353 ↗
5. A comprehensive review of unmanned aerial vehicle-based approaches to support photovoltaic plant diagnosis10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e23983 ↗
6. Technological review of the instrumentation used in aerial thermographic inspection of photovoltaic plants10.1016/j.rser.2018.05.027 ↗
7. Infrared thermography-based condition monitoring of solar photovoltaic systems: A mini review of recent advances10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.032 ↗
8. PV system defects identification using Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) based infrared (IR) imaging: A review10.1016/j.solener.2020.06.014 ↗
9. Faults and infrared thermographic diagnosis in operating c-Si photovoltaic modules: A review of research and future challenges10.1016/j.rser.2016.04.079 ↗
10. Infrared imaging of photovoltaic modules: A review of the state of the art and future challenges facing gigawatt photovoltaic power stations10.1088/2516-1083/ac890b ↗
11. Progress in module level quantitative electroluminescence imaging of crystalline silicon PV module: A review10.1016/j.solener.2023.111994 ↗
12. Advances and prospects on estimating solar photovoltaic installation capacity and potential based on satellite and aerial images10.1016/j.rser.2023.113276 ↗
13. de Oliveira, A.K.V., Aghaei, M., and Rüther, R. (2022). Automatic Inspection of Photovoltaic Power Plants Using Aerial Infrared Thermography: A Review. Energies, 15.10.3390/en15062055 ↗
14. A Review of Photovoltaic Module Failure and Degradation Mechanisms: Causes and Detection Techniques10.3390/solar4010003 ↗
15. A Review on Image Processing Techniques for Damage detection on Photovoltaic Panels
16. Comparative investigation of imaging techniques, pre-processing and visual fault diagnosis using artificial intelligence models for solar photovoltaic system–A comprehensive review10.1016/j.measurement.2024.114683 ↗
17. Hussain, T., Hussain, M., Al-Aqrabi, H., Alsboui, T., and Hill, R. (2023). A Review on Defect Detection of Electroluminescence-Based Photovoltaic Cell Surface Images Using Computer Vision. Energies, 16.10.3390/en16104012 ↗
18. A review of automated solar photovoltaic defect detection systems: Approaches, challenges, and future orientations10.1016/j.solener.2023.112186 ↗
19. Spagnolo, G.S., Del Vecchio, P., Makary, G., Papalillo, D., and Martocchia, A. (2012, January 18–25). A review of IR thermography applied to PV systems. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering, Venice, Italy.
20. Applied imagery pattern recognition for photovoltaic modules’ inspection: A review on methods, challenges and future development
21. Hoog, J., Maetschke, S., Ilfrich, P., and Kolluri, R.R. (2020, January 22–26). Using Satellite and Aerial Imagery for Identification of Solar PV: State of the Art and Research Opportunities. Proceedings of the e-Energy ‘20: Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems, Virtual Event.
22. Scherer, R. (2020). Computer Vision Methods for Fast Image Classification and Retrieval, Springer.10.1007/978-3-030-12195-2 ↗
23. Cazzato, D., Cimarelli, C., Sanchez-Lopez, J.L., Voos, H., and Leo, M. (2020). A Survey of Computer Vision Methods for 2D Object Detection from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. J. Imaging, 6.10.3390/jimaging6080078 ↗
24. Kadam, P., Fang, G., and Zou, J.J. (2024). Object Tracking Using Computer Vision: A Review. Computers, 13.10.3390/computers13060136 ↗
25. Head Pose Estimation in Computer Vision: A Survey
26. Wołk, K., and Tatara, M.S. (2024). A Review of Semantic Segmentation and Instance Segmentation Techniques in Forestry Using LiDAR and Imagery Data. Electronics, 13.10.3390/electronics13204139 ↗
27. Activity recognition using a combination of high gain observer and deep learning computer vision algorithms
28. A Novel Action Recognition Framework Based on Deep-Learning and Genetic Algorithms10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2997962 ↗
29. Human Action Recognition and Prediction: A Survey10.1007/s11263-022-01594-9 ↗
30. Fuzzy Medical Computer Vision Image Restoration and Visual Application10.1155/2022/6454550 ↗
31. Harikrishnan, J., Sudarsan, A., Sadashiv, A., and Ajai, R.A. (2019, January 30–31). Vision-Face Recognition Attendance Monitoring System for Surveillance using Deep Learning Technology and Computer Vision. Proceedings of the International Conference on Vision Towards Emerging Trends in Communication and Networking (ViTECoN), Vellore, India.10.1109/ViTECoN.2019.8899418 ↗
32. Computer vision for pattern detection in chromosome contact maps10.1038/s41467-020-19562-7 ↗
33. Hesse, N., Bodensteiner, C., Arens, M., Hofmann, U.G., Weinberger, R., and Schroeder, A.S. (2018, January 8–14). Computer Vision for Medical Infant Motion Analysis: State of the Art and RGB-D Data Set. Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) Workshops, Munich, Germany.10.1007/978-3-030-11024-6_3 ↗
34. Gadasin, D.V., Shvedov, A.V., and Kuzin, I.A. (2021, January 11–12). Reconstruction of a Three-Dimensional Scene from its Projections in Computer Vision Systems. Proceedings of the Intelligent Technologies and Electronic Devices in Vehicle and Road Transport Complex (TIRVED), Moscow, Russia.10.1109/TIRVED53476.2021.9639161 ↗
35. Shehu, V., and Dika, A. (2010, January 21–24). Using real time computer vision algorithms in automatic attendance management systems. Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces, Cavtat, Croatia.
36. Computer vision and deep learning techniques for pedestrian detection and tracking: A survey10.1016/j.neucom.2018.01.092 ↗
37. Pena-Gonzalez, R.H., and Nuno-Maganda, M.A. (2014, January 3–6). Computer vision based real-time vehicle tracking and classification system. Proceedings of the IEEE 57th International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), College Station, TX, USA.10.1109/MWSCAS.2014.6908506 ↗
38. Dey, N., Bhateja, V., and Hassanien, A.E. (2016). Medical Imaging in Clinical Applications—Algorithmic and Computer-Based Approaches, Springer. Studies in Computational Intelligence.10.1007/978-3-319-33793-7 ↗
39. AI and Computer Vision-based Real-time Quality Control: A Review of Industrial Applications10.1016/j.procs.2023.12.195 ↗
40. Andhare, P., and Rawat, S. (2016, January 12–13). Pick and place industrial robot controller with computer vision. Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Computing Communication Control and Automation (ICCUBEA), Pune, India.10.1109/ICCUBEA.2016.7860048 ↗
41. Kanchana, B., Peiris, R., Perera, D., Jayasinghe, D., and Kasthurirathna, D. (2021, January 9–11). Computer Vision for Autonomous Driving. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Advancements in Computing (ICAC), Colombo, Sri Lanka.10.1109/ICAC54203.2021.9671099 ↗
42. Computer vision and artificial intelligence in precision agriculture for grain crops: A systematic review10.1016/j.compag.2018.08.001 ↗
43. Chang, M.-C., Chiang, C.-K., Tsai, C.-M., Chang, Y.-K., Chiang, H.-L., Wang, Y.-A., Chang, S.-Y., Li, Y.-L., Tsai, M.-S., and Tseng, H.-Y. (2020, January 14–19). AI City Challenge 2020—Computer Vision for Smart Transportation Applications. Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshops, Online.10.1109/CVPRW50498.2020.00318 ↗
44. Zhang, X., Yi, W.-J., and Saniie, J. (2019, January 20–22). Home Surveillance System using Computer Vision and Convolutional Neural Network. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Electro Information Technology (EIT), Brookings, SD, USA.10.1109/EIT.2019.8833773 ↗
45. Batchelor, B.G. (2012). Machine Vision Handbook, Springer.10.1007/978-1-84996-169-1 ↗
46. Nair, S., Sharifzadeh, S., and Palade, V. (2024). Farmland Segmentation in Landsat 8 Satellite Images Using Deep Learning and Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks. Remote Sens., 16.10.3390/rs16050823 ↗
47. da Costa, M.V.C.V., de Carvalho, O.L.F., Orlandi, A.G., Hirata, I., de Albuquerque, A.O., e Silva, F.V., Guimarães, R.F., Gomes, R.A.T., and de Carvalho Júnior, O.A. (2021). Remote Sensing for Monitoring Photovoltaic Solar Plants in Brazil Using Deep Semantic Segmentation. Energies, 14.10.3390/en14102960 ↗
48. Contribution of SPOT-7 multi-temporal imagery for mapping wetland vegetation10.1080/22797254.2020.1795727 ↗
49. Tong, X.-Y., Lu, Q., Xia, G.-S., and Zhang, L. (2018, January 22–27). Large-Scale Land Cover Classification in Gaofen-2 Satellite Imagery. Proceedings of the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Valencia, Spain.10.1109/IGARSS.2018.8518389 ↗
50. Lin, Y., and Saripalli, S. (2012, January 14–18). Road detection from aerial imagery. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Saint Paul, MN, USA.
51. Defect detection and quantification in electroluminescence images of solar PV modules using U-net semantic segmentation10.1016/j.renene.2021.06.086 ↗
52. Henry, C., Poudel, S., Lee, S.-W., and Jeong, H. (2020). Automatic Detection System of Deteriorated PV Modules Using Drone with Thermal Camera. Appl. Sci., 10.10.3390/app10113802 ↗
53. Photoluminescence Imaging for the In-Line Quality Control of Thin-Film Solar Cells10.3390/solar2010001 ↗
54. Eder, G.C., Voronko, Y., Hirschl, C., Ebner, R., Újvári, G., and Mühleisen, W. (2018). Non-Destructive Failure Detection and Visualization of Artificially and Naturally Aged PV Modules. Energies, 11.10.3390/en11051053 ↗
55. Road Extraction Methods in High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images: A Comprehensive Review10.1109/JSTARS.2020.3023549 ↗
56. Jia, J., Sun, H., Jiang, C., Karila, K., Karjalainen, M., Ahokas, E., Khoramshahi, E., Hu, P., Chen, C., and Xue, T. (2021). Review on Active and Passive Remote Sensing Techniques for Road Extraction. Remote Sens., 13.10.3390/rs13214235 ↗
57. Parhar, P., Sawasaki, R., Todeschini, A., Reed, C., Vahabi, H., Nusaputra, N., and Vergara, F. (2022). HyperionSolarNet: Solar Panel Detection from Aerial Images. arXiv.
58. Combined multi-level context aggregation and attention mechanism method for photovoltaic panel extraction from high resolution remote sensing images10.1080/01431161.2024.2347527 ↗
59. Multi-resolution dataset for photovoltaic panel segmentation from satellite and aerial imagery10.5194/essd-13-5389-2021 ↗
60. Automatic detection of solar photovoltaic arrays in high resolution aerial imagery10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.08.191 ↗
61. Malof, J.M., Collins, L.M., Bradbury, K., and Newell, R.G. (2016, January 20–23). A deep convolutional neural network and a random forest classifier for solar photovoltaic array detection in aerial imagery. Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA), Birmingham, UK.10.1109/ICRERA.2016.7884415 ↗
62. Yuan, J., Yang, H.-H.L., Omitaomu, O.A., and Bhaduri, B.L. (2016, January 5–8). Large-scale solar panel mapping from aerial images using deep convolutional networks. Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data), Washington, DC, USA.10.1109/BigData.2016.7840915 ↗
63. Automatic Boundary Extraction of Large-Scale Photovoltaic Plants Using a Fully Convolutional Network on Aerial Imagery10.1109/JPHOTOV.2020.2992339 ↗
64. DetEEktor: Mask R-CNN based neural network for energy plant identification on aerial photographs10.1016/j.egyai.2021.100069 ↗
65. Li, L., Lu, N., Jiang, H., and Qin, J. (2023). Impact of Deep Convolutional Neural Network Structure on Photovoltaic Array Extraction from High Spatial Resolution Remote Sensing Images. Remote Sens., 15.10.3390/rs15184554 ↗
66. PVNet: A novel semantic segmentation model for extracting high-quality photovoltaic panels in large-scale systems from high-resolution remote sensing imagery
67. Enhancing PV panel segmentation in remote sensing images with constraint refinement modules10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121757 ↗
68. The automatic segmentation of residential solar panels based on satellite images: A cross learning driven U-Net method10.1016/j.asoc.2020.106283 ↗
69. Optimal installation and operation planning of parking spaces for solar-powered electric vehicles using hemispherical images10.1016/j.renene.2023.119444 ↗
70. Rapid mapping and spatial analysis on the distribution of photovoltaic power stations with Sentinel-1&2 images in Chinese coastal provinces
71. Solar photovoltaic module detection using laboratory and airborne imaging spectroscopy data10.1016/j.rse.2021.112692 ↗
72. Zech, M., and Ranalli, J. (2020, January 15–21). Predicting PV Areas in Aerial Images with Deep Learning. Proceedings of the 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, Online.10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300636 ↗
73. (2025, August 04). Available online: https://getsolar.ai/blog/machine-learning-rooftop-detection-solar-installations/.
74. Krapf, S., Bogenrieder, L., Netzler, F., Balke, G., and Lienkamp, M. (2022). RID—Roof Information Dataset for Computer Vision-Based Photovoltaic Potential Assessment. Remote Sens., 14.10.3390/rs14102299 ↗
75. Georeferencing of photovoltaic modules from aerial infrared videos using structure-from-motion10.1002/pip.3564 ↗
76. Kleebauer, M., Horst, D., and Reudenbach, C. (2021). Semi-Automatic Generation of Training Samples for Detecting Renewable Energy Plants in High-Resolution Aerial Images. Remote Sens., 13.10.3390/rs13234793 ↗
77. General generative AI-based image augmentation method for robust rooftop PV segmentation10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.123554 ↗
78. Deep Roof Refiner: A detail-oriented deep learning network for refined delineation of roof structure lines using satellite imagery
79. Understanding rooftop PV panel semantic segmentation of satellite and aerial images for better using machine learning10.1016/j.adapen.2021.100057 ↗
80. Identifying small decentralized solar systems in aerial images using deep learning10.1016/j.solener.2023.111822 ↗
81. Deep learning in the built environment: Automatic detection of rooftop solar panels using Convolutional Neural Networks10.1088/1742-6596/1343/1/012034 ↗
82. 3D-PV-Locator: Large-scale detection of rooftop-mounted photovoltaic systems in 3D10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118469 ↗
83. Mapping of decentralised photovoltaic and solar thermal systems by remote sensing aerial imagery and deep machine learning for statistic generation10.1016/j.egyai.2023.100300 ↗
84. PV Identifier: Extraction of small-scale distributed photovoltaics in complex environments from high spatial resolution remote sensing images10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.123311 ↗
85. Advances in solar forecasting: Computer vision with deep learning10.1016/j.adapen.2023.100150 ↗
86. A framework to estimate generating capacities of PV systems using satellite imagery segmentation10.1016/j.engappai.2023.106186 ↗
87. Deep solar PV refiner: A detail-oriented deep learning network for refined segmentation of photovoltaic areas from satellite imagery
88. TransPV: Refining photovoltaic panel detection accuracy through a vision transformer-based deep learning model10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122282 ↗
89. High-resolution mapping of water photovoltaic development in China through satellite imagery
90. Braid, J.L., Riley, D., Pearce, J.M., and Burnham, L. (August, January 15). Image Analysis Method for Quantifying Snow Losses on PV Systems. Proceedings of the 2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), Calgary, AB, Canada.10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300373 ↗
91. Recent advances in intra-hour solar forecasting: A review of ground-based sky image methods10.1016/j.ijforecast.2021.11.002 ↗
92. Sawant, M., Shende, M.K., Feijóo-Lorenzo, A.E., and Bokde, N.D. (2021). The State-of-the-Art Progress in Cloud Detection, Identification, and Tracking Approaches: A Systematic Review. Energies, 14.10.3390/en14238119 ↗
93. Real-time forecasting of solar irradiance ramps with smart image processing10.1016/j.solener.2015.01.024 ↗
94. Short-term irradiance forecasting using skycams: Motivation and development10.1016/j.solener.2014.08.038 ↗
95. Sky image-based solar irradiance prediction methodologies using artificial neural networks10.1016/j.renene.2018.11.056 ↗
96. Short-term reforecasting of power output from a 48 MWe solar PV plant10.1016/j.solener.2014.11.017 ↗
97. Hybrid intra-hour DNI forecasts with sky image processing enhanced by stochastic learning10.1016/j.solener.2013.10.020 ↗
98. Brox, T., Bruhn, A., and Fritz, M. (2019). KloudNet: Deep Learning for Sky Image Analysis and Irradiance Forecasting. Pattern Recognition, Springer. GCPR 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science.10.1007/978-3-030-12939-2 ↗
99. SolarNet: A sky image-based deep convolutional neural network for intra-hour solar forecasting10.1016/j.solener.2020.03.083 ↗
100. Short-term solar PV forecasting using computer vision: The search for optimal CNN architectures for incorporating sky images and PV generation history10.1063/1.5122796 ↗