Every utility-scale O&M crew carries a thermal camera now, and many sites get a full aerial IR scan every year. That makes infrared thermography certification one of the most practical add-on credentials for a solar technician. It is short, it is respected outside solar, and it fixes the most common problem with thermal images: people who can take them but cannot interpret them.
This guide explains what the certification levels mean, how the training works, what the solar-specific standard asks for, and how to decide whether a Level I course is worth your time and your employer's money. For the camera itself and how it fits with your other test gear, see our O&M diagnostic toolkit.
Why solar techs get certified in thermography
A PV array is mostly invisible faults. A hot cell, a shorted bypass diode, a dead substring, a loose lug in a combiner box or a stressed inverter connection all show up as heat before they show up as a trip or a fire. Thermal imaging finds them fast, and the NREL PV and storage O&M best-practices guide names thermal imaging of inverter connections and components as part of manufacturer-required maintenance. It also shows high-resolution aerial IR being used to identify failed strings, modules and cells.
The catch is that thermal images lie easily. Module glass reflects the sky and the sun. Emissivity changes with viewing angle. A cloud passing over changes everything. A tech without training can report a reflection as a hot spot or miss a real fault because the camera range was set wrong. Certification exists to close that gap.
Is it legally required? No. A trainer quoted in EC&M's guide to infrared certifications notes that no certification or license is required to operate an IR camera in North America. The credential matters because clients, insurers and standards ask for qualified thermographers, and the same article notes some insurers require Level II.
Infrared thermography certification levels explained
North American thermography training is built around the American Society for Nondestructive Testing guideline SNT-TC-1A. Courses follow the ANSI/ASNT CP-105 topical outline, and outside North America providers use ISO 18436 and ISO 9712. The three levels break down like this:
| Level | What you can do | Experience guideline (SNT-TC-1A) | Who in solar O&M needs it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level I | Collect images and measurements following a written procedure; identify anomalies under the direction of a Level II or III | About 210 hours on the job | Field techs who shoot combiners, inverters and modules |
| Level II | Set up and calibrate equipment, interpret results against codes and specs, write and organize reports, direct Level I staff | More than 1,200 hours | Lead techs, site IR program owners, anyone signing reports |
| Level III | Develop and approve procedures, set severity criteria and inspection frequency, manage the program | Not specified in our source | Fleet reliability or performance engineers |
Experience figures are from the EC&M article. One point confuses a lot of people: under SNT-TC-1A, certification is employer-based. The training company gives you a training and testing certificate; your employer certifies that you have the job experience. That is why two techs with the same course certificate can hold different status at different companies.
What a Level I course looks like
The Infrared Training Center's Level I page describes four days of live instruction at eight hours a day, offered online or in a classroom. The fee covers instruction, the manual, lab exercises, the exam and the certification documents. You need a laptop or tablet for the electronic exam, and an IR camera for the labs, which you can rent.
A published Level I syllabus from Monroe Infrared, an ITC training partner, shows how those 32 hours are spent:
- Camera operation: focus, thermal tuning, measurement range and tools
- Thermal science: heat versus temperature, units and scales
- Heat transfer: steady-state and transient flow, wind effects, thermal capacitance
- IR science: spectrum, wavebands, qualitative versus quantitative work
- Measurement technique: calibration, reflected apparent temperature, atmospheric correction, emissivity
- Reporting and analysis software, plus labs in electrical and mechanical applications
For solar, the emissivity and reflected-temperature modules are the ones that pay off. Glass is a reflective target, and almost every false hot spot on a module comes from ignoring that.
According to the O*NET certification record for ITC Level I, you must complete the course, pass closed-book exams and quizzes, and submit a field assignment showing you can use the camera properly in your application. Renewal is due every four years through continuing education, re-examination or professional development. ITC's certification page adds that renewal also requires continued active work in thermography, so a certificate you never use will lapse in practice.
The drone version
ITC also offers an sUAS Level I course focused on aerial IR inspections, listed on the Teledyne FLIR training site. If your employer flies its own scans, this is the version to ask for. Pair it with an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate, which is a separate federal requirement for commercial drone flying.
Solar-specific rules: IEC TS 62446-3
General thermography training does not teach you PV conditions. The standard that does is IEC TS 62446-3, published by the IEC in June 2017. According to the IEC webstore listing, it covers outdoor IR inspection of operating PV modules and plants, including requirements for equipment, ambient conditions, procedure, reporting and personnel qualification, plus a matrix for classifying thermal abnormalities.
Operators and drone software vendors who apply it publish the field conditions it calls for. From an IEA PVPS presentation and Teledyne FLIR's drone-inspection guidance:
- Irradiance: above 600 W/m2 on the plane of the array. Measure and record it before you start.
- Wind: below about 28 km/h (roughly 17 mph).
- Clouds: low cover; FLIR's summary puts it at no more than 2/8 of the sky.
- Resolution: no coarser than about 3 cm per pixel on the module, which on a six-inch cell gives roughly a five-by-five pixel block.
- Viewing angle: FLIR advises staying above 30 degrees from the module surface to limit reflections.
- Soiling: clean modules first where possible, since dirt changes emissivity and can create its own heating.
Raptor Maps, a widely used solar inspection platform, adds a practical rule for its own customers: no data capture within 120 minutes of sunrise or sunset, a minimum 640 x 512 IR sensor, and a photographed pyranometer reading as proof of irradiance.
What thermography finds on a solar site
Once you are trained, these are the patterns you will be paid to recognize and report:
- Single hot cells: cracked or shaded cells, often from hail or handling damage.
- Hot substrings: one-third of a module running warm, often a bypass diode doing its job or failing.
- Whole module warm: module disconnected or open-circuited.
- Whole string warm or cool: a string outage from a blown fuse, failed connector or wiring fault.
- Patchwork patterns: potential-induced degradation, which needs electroluminescence or IV testing to confirm.
- Hot terminations: loose or corroded lugs in combiner boxes, recombiners and inverters.
A good report never stops at the image. It pairs each anomaly with the conditions at capture, a severity class and a recommended follow-up such as an IV curve trace or a torque check. That pairing is exactly what Level I trains you to do.
Is thermography certification worth it for a solar tech?
Use this checklist to decide:
- Does your site already do annual aerial IR? If a vendor flies it, Level I helps you triage their findings and verify anomalies on the ground.
- Do you work on combiners, inverters and switchgear? Electrical IR is the most transferable skill in the course and travels to substations, data centers and industrial maintenance.
- Will your employer pay? Ask. An in-house certified tech can verify vendor findings on the ground, which is an easy case to make to a site manager.
- Do you want to lead? If you want to run an IR program or sign reports, plan for Level II after you log real hours.
- Are you also learning drones? The sUAS Level I plus Part 107 combination is a strong pairing for inspection-focused roles.
Thermography is also one of the skills that separates specialists from generalists on our ranking of O&M specializations.
Bottom line
If you work in solar O&M and handle a thermal camera, get Level I within your first two years, ideally paid for by your employer and in the sUAS version if your site flies drones. It is a four-day course with lasting value inside and outside solar. Learn the IEC TS 62446-3 conditions on your own, because generic courses will not teach them, and save Level II for when you are ready to own the reports.