This article is reproduced from the "Global PV" public account.

RFID sounds very professional, and you may not know it, but if you are engaged in photovoltaic product manufacturing, design, quality, or if you are involved in photovoltaic power station operation, maintenance, monitoring, or even if you work in supply chain management and procurement, you might need to know this "RFID"!

During the expansion of the photovoltaic industry, many pain points in production, operation, and management have been exposed. Industrial RFID identification technology, with its mature and stable performance, accurate and efficient data collection, can solve many of these pain points and is becoming an important driver for the intelligent upgrade of the photovoltaic industry.

1. Prominent pain points in the photovoltaic industry: traditional management struggles to meet development needs.

The photovoltaic industry chain covers many manufacturing links such as silicon wafers, cells, modules, inverters, and auxiliary materials. Even photovoltaic power stations involve complex links like operation, maintenance, and monitoring. As the industry reaches terawatt scale, traditional management models can no longer meet the needs of efficient development, as shown below:

• Asset control difficulties: Equipment assets such as photovoltaic panels and inverters are scattered, and manual registration is error-prone, leading to asset idling or loss.

• Quality traceability difficulties: Information on production processes and raw material sources is not transparent. Once quality issues arise, it is difficult to quickly locate the root cause.

• Weak production coordination: Data collection in Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) relies on manual input, and process parameters and production status cannot be synchronized in real time, affecting overall efficiency.

• Low operation and maintenance efficiency: Equipment in photovoltaic stations requires regular maintenance. Manual inspection is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it is difficult to detect potential faults in time.

2. Industrial RFID: Full-scenario empowerment to solve photovoltaic management pain points.

Industrial RFID is mature and stable, with characteristics such as cold resistance, high temperature tolerance, and fast and accurate data reading. It has been widely used in many industrial scenarios including photovoltaics and lithium batteries. By deploying ultra-high frequency (UHF) industrial RFID readers, environment-resistant RFID tags, and industrial gateways, it comprehensively covers the entire process of photovoltaic production, operation, and management, enabling intelligent transformation of all scenarios in photovoltaic manufacturing and operation, thereby reducing costs, increasing efficiency, improving quality, and enabling traceability.

For photovoltaics to generate electricity, products are key. In the manufacturing of photovoltaic products, industrial RFID enables full-process traceability and quality control:

In the silicon rod manufacturing process, RFID technology binds a unique electronic tag to each monocrystalline silicon rod, overcoming the data delays or errors of traditional manual recording, and records process parameters (such as crucible lift position, hot shield temperature, crystal lift speed) in real time, making production data traceable. RFID readers collect parameters in real time and feed back to the control system to form closed-loop control, ensuring consistency of crystal growth and improving the yield of monocrystalline silicon rods to over 98%. If a batch of products has quality issues, the RFID system can quickly locate the problem stage, reducing losses from quality incidents.

In the silicon wafer slicing process, RFID tags are attached to the baskets carrying wafers, and readers are deployed at key stations to collect and upload production process parameters and quality inspection results to the MES system in real time, enabling full traceability of wafer flow and helping to correct potential quality issues promptly.

In solar cell manufacturing, RFID technology can effectively cope with harsh production environments such as high temperature and corrosion. Industrial-grade RFID tags resistant to high temperature and corrosion are installed on cell carriers to stably record process parameters in core processes like texturing, diffusion, and sintering, forming an "electronic file" for each cell to ensure data continuity and traceability.

In the module encapsulation process, RFID tags are configured for modules to collect core information such as production date, component supplier, and test results. This not only prevents mismatches and omissions during production but also enables quick traceability of the full life cycle record when quality issues arise later, precisely locating the responsible link.

RFID industrial gateways combined with RFID industrial identification readers can form a "one gateway, multiple read heads" model, applied to photovoltaic production lines to achieve overall traceability of intelligent photovoltaic product production lines, ensuring product quality and traceability across the board.

In the system integration side, production coordination can be achieved. The deep integration of RFID technology with the MES system provides efficient data support for production management. By collecting resource location, process parameters, quality data, and other information in real time, the system can effectively cover four scenarios: resource management, process control, quality management, and online monitoring, improving production coordination efficiency and product consistency.

3. Value of RFID technology in photovoltaic power station operation and construction management.

In addition to manufacturing, RFID technology also plays an important role in the construction and operation of photovoltaic power stations.

- Intelligent station operation and maintenance

If photovoltaic modules, inverters, and other products are equipped with industrial RFID tags, maintenance personnel can quickly obtain product status and historical maintenance records via readers, enabling predictive maintenance, extending equipment life, and reducing maintenance costs.

This technology can also replace some manual inspection work, achieving automated data collection and identification of assets.

- Detailed construction management

During the power station construction phase, equipping construction materials, tools, and equipment with RFID tags can track the flow and usage of materials in real time, avoiding waste, improving material utilization, and making the construction process more transparent and efficient. At the same time, RFID technology can also be used for contactless verification of personnel identity, improving station safety management.

- Full life cycle intelligent management of photovoltaic assets

Applying RFID tags to photovoltaic modules can go beyond production and operation phases to empower full life cycle intelligent management. By integrating sensors, it can monitor operating parameters such as temperature, humidity, and voltage of photovoltaic modules in real time, with data transmitted remotely to a monitoring center for anomaly alerts.

In addition, recording data such as power generation and operating time helps in formulating scientific maintenance plans. By linking with security systems, it can also alert in time when assets are illegally moved, ensuring asset safety.

In summary, with the continuous upgrade of the photovoltaic industry, intelligent and refined management has become a core competitiveness of enterprises. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has repeatedly launched smart photovoltaic plans. Smart photovoltaics are reflected not only in the power generation side but also in the manufacturing side and even in the product side.

Adopting industrial RFID identification technology in the entire photovoltaic industry chain can, with stable and reliable product performance and full-scenario adaptability, comprehensively empower the photovoltaic industry from production traceability, MES integration, to station operation and maintenance, and safety management, helping enterprises solve management pain points, reduce operating costs, and improve product quality.

Shanghai FineJoin Smart Technology Co., Ltd. has been focusing on RFID product development and production for 20 years, with a leading market share in the photovoltaic industry. LONGi, Tongwei, Trina, GCL, Canadian Solar, Jinko, JA Solar, Runyang, Zhongrun, Chint, TATA are all using Fuen Electronics' RFID.

In your photovoltaic career, have you heard of or used RFID? Do you have more suggestions for RFID applications? Welcome to leave a comment below and share your experience.